


I Don't Want This Cat!

by melisgoing2hell



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alcohol, Blood, Cat, Cat antics, College, Eventual Relationships, Fluff and Humor, Injury, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pet Names, Pet Ownership - Freeform, Pining, Yamaguchi centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-04-27 11:55:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5047546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melisgoing2hell/pseuds/melisgoing2hell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say owners don't choose their cats. Cat choose their owners. A tabby stray has chosen his owner in Yamaguchi. And, well it wouldn't be so bad if Yamaguchi actually liked cats.<br/>Actually, this is just the story about how Yamaguchi wants to focus on school and forget about his crush on his ex best friend.<br/>(Still though, very Yamaguchi centric, like I can't stress that enough)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not ultimately sure where I want this to go... But it is my first time writing Haikyuu!! fan fiction so accept my deepest apologies!! Not beta'd either... Possibly adding more pairings later!

“Come here pretty kitty!! Here here!! Nyaanyaa!!” Nishinoya cooed at an adult cat under a parked car. “That’s not what cats sound like! Its more like Nyyyaaaahh!!” Tanaka argued rubbing his hands together trying not to let the cold get to them. “Shh!! You’re too loud!!” Nishinoya snapped back at Tanaka reaching toward the shaking feline. A quick swipe with claws and he pulled back with a hiss, “Dude just accept that this cat hates you” Tanaka gave him a shove, he’d been at this for a hour on the snow! 

Mid January was the worst time of year for strays, the heavy sheets of snow that blanketed the streets always spelled certain doom to the homeless cats, which of course, meant that Nishinoya had to adopt or at least feed every damn stray he found. It had taken two days to track down this short haired yellow tabby and Nishinoya felt nothing but determination to catch it now. 

“I’ve almost earned his trust!! Give me another hour tops!!” Yuu pleaded to his best friend, “You know I’m not leaving until you do anyway…” Tanaka groaned and knelt beside Nishinoya surveying the shaking probably feral cat, “Come on cat! I’m freezing my fingers off” he whined, he reached out to the cat himself but pulled back when it hissed and swatted at him too. Cats always loved Nishinoya, he couldn’t figure this weird one out…

“Stop loitering guys!! You’re scaring off customers!” A annoyed voiced called behind them, they turned to look at Yamaguchi standing behind them. “No we’re not!” Tanaka yelled back, “You guys look like gang members torturing a cat!!” Yamaguchi gestured at them. They did look sketchy in leather jackets and jeans, not to mention buzzed cuts and blonde bangs. “Alright… we get it! But Noya won’t leave until this cat comes out!” 

Yamaguchi rolled his eyes and walked over kneeling to look down at the cat, it wasn’t familiar at all but the cats gold eyes flashed to him. It was hiding behind a wheel away from the loud pair, it was curled up in a defensive position, its tail curled carefully under its body and ears back. It shook and seemed to be too thin, he felt a strange connection to the small shaking creature, he knew what it felt like to hide, but it had been a long time since he felt that way. The ears on its head came forward to point at Yamaguchi and its eyes fixed on him. It suddenly jumped to his direction, Nishinoya jumped back and crawled back “Watch out!! It’s crazy and feral!!” He called as Yamaguchi stood up taking a few steps back in caution. 

The cat came out quickly and hurried to Yamaguchi rubbing on his ankles and curling its tail around his leg. Tanaka and Nishinoya looked up at him annoyed, “Whaaaat?? It was Yamaguchi’s cat this whole time!!” Tanaka whined feeling defeated by feline whim. Before Yamaguchi could open his mouth Nishinoya was on him “Why did you let your cat out when it was this cold out?!” He demanded as the cat mewled affectionately. “Hey hey!! This isn’t my cat!!” Yamaguchi waved his hands trying to explain, “What?! You can’t lie to us look at him!! He loves you!” Nishinoya leant down to pet the cat but was scratched again, the cat darted behind Yamaguchi’s legs and flicked his tail holding a paw up as a warning, his eyes dialated and glaring at them. “You guys probably just bugged it too much and now it hates you two!” Yamaguchi moved to the side but the cat moved with him. It reached toward him and grabbed his pant leg with a careful claw to apparently hold him still. 

It was a curiously acting creature to say the least, “Hold still!” Nishinoya said hurrying into Shimada’s store that Yamaguchi was working at. He hurried back out in a moment producing a can of wet cat food, Yamaguchi frowned, “I hope you paid for that” he said knowing full well that he was the only shop tender at the moment. “Yeah yeah. Who are you, my mom?” He opened the can and crouched to offer it to the cat. The cat licked its lips and eyed the food nervously, when the hand of food came too close again it swatted at him again. “Ow!! Why do you hate me?!” Yuu whined rubbing his hand, he sighed in defeat and held it up to Yamaguchi, “Feed your cat” he said with a pout. 

Yamaguchi really wanted nothing to do with this, the smell if the food was nauseating and it looked disgusting but he took it and set it at his own feet, the cat sniffed and started licking it before it even reached the ground. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Tanaka whined, “This cat is obviously yours!” He gestured to the eating cat. “It’s not mine. I don’t even like cats…” Yamaguchi sighed and idly pet the cat who seemed to relax under his hand. He was a text book dog person, he wanted a playful puppy to be happy when he came home.

“Hey aren’t you supposed to be watching the store!” Shimada called to Yamaguchi as he walked up to the small group. “S-Sorry Makoto!!” Yamaguchi responded wiping his hands on his apron front, it had been a slow and snowy day so Shimada had left him to mind the store to run an errand. “Don’t worry about it! I was mostly teasing! Hello Nishinoya and Tanaka! I saw you in the last game you did great!” He commended the two, his eyes darted down to the cat currently licking every inch of the can. 

“Oh hey! You caught the stray!” He said patting Yamaguchi on the shoulder, “You know this cat?” Yamaguchi asked as the cat began to rub against his leg once more. “Its always kinda hung around the store… never has been very friendly though” the cat demonstrated that when he held out a hand down to touch it. “Owch! Mean little guy… He seems to have taken a liking to you though Tadashi!” He laughed as the cat curled around his legs asking to be picked up. “Yeah only Yamaguchi…” Nishinoya shrugged, his eyes suddenly lit up when Yamaguchi leant down to pick the cat up, “Sure does remind you of ‘someone’ doesn’t he??” He elbowed Tanaka roughly as he sniggered. Yamaguchi rolled his eyes “No… just don’t” he started as the cat rubbed against his face with affection. “The similarities are uncanny! They even look the same…” Tanaka observed trying to look smart. “That’s a good name for him too!!” Nishinoya teased, the pair of boys shouted in unison “His name shall be Tsukki!!”. 

“Get off of store property now.” Yamaguchi deadpanned despite the cat trying to get his attention in his arms. “We’re not naming this cat! Its not my cat!” He argued as the two shared a knowing look. “He is now! You can’t leave him out in the snow!” Yuu argued back, “He’s right Tadashi…” Makoto nodded eyeing the cuddly cat in his arms. “B-But!!” He started but was firmly interrupted, “Your apartment is cool with cats but not dogs anyway right?!” Tanaka said. “That doesn’t mean I want a cat!!” He tried to argue but his patience was wearing down as the cat rubbed his cheek against his purring loudly.

“Aw!! He’s scenting you!” Yuu cooed at Yamaguchi who looked down in shock thinking that scenting and marking were the same thing, “No no bad cat!” He yelled. “Then it's settled! Tsukki will stay with Yamaguchi!” Tanaka said finally as if some conclusion had been agreed upon. Yamaguchi shook his head trying to stop this idea from continuing. “That’s nice of you, Tadashi!“ Shimada patted him on the back, “You can leave early and take Tsukki home, its slow today anyway!” He waved him off chuckling lightly and walking back into the store. Yamaguchi frowned at him, he was enjoying this wasn’t he? 

“Speaking of… has he said anything?” Nishinoya asked suddenly becoming serious, Yamaguchi bit his lower lip, of course they had to ask! “No… he’s probably never going to talk to me again…” he sighed and unconsciously held the cat closer to his chest. He hadn’t spoken to Kei since they had parted ways the summer of their senior year, that was a sore subject as it was. He couldn’t get the look of disdain Kei gave him when they said their final goodbyes. Although at the time, he didn’t know it was final, if he had, there was so much more he would have said… 

Tanaka smacked him in the back roughly to bring him back to reality, “Yama! Forget about that jerk! You are independent and you don’t need him!!” He shouted. Yamaguchi jumped and felt the cat flinch in his arms as it swatted at Tanaka for coming near, “You make it sound worse than it is! I’m fine!” He huffed. No he wasn’t. But geez, he didn’t want their pity! 

“Tonight, Oikawa is having a party, you should come to get your mind off of finals!!” Nishinoya added quickly. “Or! Or! Come to club and knock the ball around! Its never too late to join!” Tanaka added further poking at Yamaguchi. “I told you, I quit Volleyball. I’m a full time student and I have a part time job, I don’t have time for volleyball!” Yamaguchi set the cat down, who curled around legs meowing loudly. “Okay… Sounds fake… But okay…” Nishinoya said suspiciously giving him an unbelieving look. “Come on! We need a pinch server! Plus if you could just serve one that even Oikawa can’t hit it, it might knock him down a peg!” Tanaka whined. 

“Or! Or! Just serve it into his head and that will help!” Nishinoya said quickly, “I said I quit!” Yamaguchi took off his apron and returned it to the store with the two and Tsukki following close. Although, serving into the back of Oikawa’s head did sound appealing… 

“I’m not coming back and that’s final” he said firmly, Tanaka and Nishinoya sighed loudly and rolled their eyes, “Well at least come to the party tonight!!” Tanaka reminded him. “Why? So Oikawa can try to convince me to join as well?” He grabbed his book bag and turned to see two pleading eyes staring at him. Feeling nervous with the eyes on him, he stepped back and almost tripped on the purring cat. “Ah! Fuck Tsukki!!” He yelled spooked, he almost didn’t recognise the name on his lips. Tanaka and Nishinoya giggled at the sight, “So good to see you two getting along!” Tanaka said turning away. “See you at the party! Come or we’ll come get you!!” Nishinoya yelled hurrying off with Tanaka. Yamaguchi sighed officially out of people to argue with about ownership of the cat. He looked down at the cat and idly remembered that Nishinoya never paid for the canned food.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukki gets settled in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaahhh thank you everyone!!! I can't believe how many people liked the first chapter!!! I'm sorry about the mistake saying it was a single chapter!! This fic was going to turn a bit more smutty and self indulgent but the cat aspect of this story took on a life of its own!! It won't turn out innocent but I'm going to keep it light hearted!! 
> 
> I'm so happy that this story was taken off so well!! Thank you for the kudos!!!! I hope you love the future chapters as well!!

Walking back to his apartment, Yamaguchi wondered why he had to be so important to the team that his ex-teammates and even some that he had once played against even cared that he didn’t want to join. He had gotten everything out of volleyball he had wanted. He had social skills, friends, athleticism and hadn’t felt weak or bullied since middle school! He didn’t need to play anymore. 

He looked back to find the cat ‘affectionately’ named Tsukki following him closely. “You know if find someone who you like more than me, feel free to go live with them instead” he said to the cat not thinking about how crazy he looked. He looked around at the people now staring at him. Yeah, he looked nuts talking to the cat like it would listen. Tsukki reached up and clawed into pants stretching against him, “…. You are friendlier than Tsukishima was….” he shrugged picking up the cat and carrying it up his stairs.

He set Tsukki down to riffle through his bag for his keys, he opened his door and watched the cat hurry inside. He took his jacket off and felt his body finally warm up, kicking off his feet as he walked into his small apartment, he wished he could live closer to his school but rent is not cheap! 

He started a pot of tea and sat on his couch letting out a relaxed sigh, he pulled his laptop to him and opened it checking his emails for anything from his professors, nothing. Two emails from Yachi, one was a picture of her and a large black Labrador with the title “Check out this dogg!!!” He smiled to himself, she told him about how school had been. How much fear she felt that she was going to fail. Five emails from Hinata, all sent within five minutes of each other. 

“im gonna fail yama ” 

“nvm im gonna be OK @A@”

“bakeyama hates me now!! I didnt do anything wrong!!!” 

“OK. so i may have left his number on the bathroom wall and wrote under it call me for a good time…” Picture attached. 

“when they find the body show the police these emails yam a! U r my only hope!!” Yeah, he’s on his own with this one…

Two emails from Kageyama, one requesting studying material for history class. Yamaguchi shook his head and smiled to himself, they weren’t even at the same university and they still begged for help from him. The second was a thinly veiled threat.

“This little shit is fucking dead. They will not find the body. New number attached.”

Yamaguchi laughed to himself thinking about how much he missed the odd couple. He almost responded to Kageyama reminding him that he couldn’t play volleyball in jail (that always kept him at bay) when Tsukki jumped up and sat directly on his keyboard and instead his response looked like a jumbled mess. He groaned and picked Tsukki up staring him in the eyes, Tsukki glared back at him slowly blinking and flicking his tail. “Goddamnit Tsukki I have to do homework…” he grumbled setting the cat next to him. 

Tsukki hurried off to explore even more as Yamaguchi’s Skype started going off with an incoming call from Hinata, he sighed and remembered that he had promised to help them study, it was the good part of having the same class, they weren’t doomed.

He put on his headset and answered the call only to see both Kageyama and Hinata stating at him from inside a designated common room at their college. He smiled seeing their familiar faces “Hey hey!! What was up with that email?! Kageyama thought you died!” Hinata asked loudly. 

“

No don’t worry about it! Just dropped the laptop” he lied shrugging as Hinata shoved Kageyama playfully “Told you Bakeyama!” Yamaguchi shook his head, “I thought you were dead actually…” he corrected him. Hinata laughed a bit nervously “We uh… we fixed it” he said nervously. “He paid for me to get a new number” Kageyama said plainly, “After I threw him out a window…”. 

“Nice, well let’s get started I have to go to a party tonight” Yamaguchi opened his book scanning until he got to the material they were covering. “Ughh!! I want to go to a party!!” Hinata whined, Kageyama looked like he was going to box Hinata’s ears if he got any louder and opened his own book. “No you don’t, its Oikawa’s party” Yamaguchi rolled his eyes, “Oh… yeah no I don’t want to go” Hinata said sitting closer to Kageyama to share the textbook. 

“You’re actually going? That’s not like you…” Kageyama mused observantly, Yamaguchi shrugged with a sigh “If I don’t go the entire Kansai University Volleyball team is going to hunt me down, so I don’t really have a choice” he said. Its not like he minded that much, he was friends with everyone on the team anyway. 

Suddenly a loud crash came from his kitchen, “Damnit Tsukki what are you doing?!” He yelled looking up to see Tsukki flicking his tail standing above a knocked over skillet. Yamaguchi groaned and sat deeper in his seat looking back at the now surprised faces of his friends, “Uh… he’s not there Yamaguchi…” Hinata stood and looked back. “Yeah he’s actually a few desks down pretending that Hinata isn’t throwing paper airplanes at him” Kageyama said. 

Yamaguchi felt his cheeks burn at even the mention of the cats namesake being near, “N-No its…! This stupid cat… Nishinoya and Tanaka named him and pawned him off on me…”. He felt how pathetic he sounded, just a single guy with a cat named after his ex best friend. Wow he was really pathetic. 

“Oh what?! You got a cat?! Awesome let me see!!” Hinata shoved his face into the laptops camera. Yamaguchi picked up his laptop and pointed it in the direction of the cat, who put his ears back at the sight of strangers, “Oh my god it even looks like him!!” Hinata said excitedly. “Yeah well for some reason its imprinted on me or something… So it’s staying with me I guess!” He said exasperated at the situation. 

“Let’s just continue, what chapter did you guys cover today-Tsukki no!!!!” He yelled when the cat jumped back onto his laptop facing him and shutting off his Skype call. 

On the other end, the call ended after Yamaguchi yelled out the cats name, Hinata wanted to laugh at him but turned to see a very confused Tsukishima looking around, his headphones off for once, “…You okay?” Hinata asked looking back at him. “Did… you two idiots hear something?” He asked looking a little nervous. He could have sworn he’d just heard a painfully familiar sound. 

The odd couple glanced at each other not sure what to tell the taller boy, “Nope, did you?” Kageyama said with a completely straight face. Tsukishima looked around one more time before hurrying off putting his headphones back on. 

Hinata’s laptop went off with a new call from Yamaguchi, he answered and found that Yamaguchi now had a furry purring cat wrapped around his neck. He looked less happy than the extremely attached cat. “Sorry about that, Tsukki is a jackass…” he grumbled. 

“Never mind that I think we just gaslit Tsukishima…”. Kageyama announced checking to ensure the victim wasn’t in earshot. Nice vocabulary… Yamaguchi thought to himself impressed that Kageyama seemed to be learning “Don’t- Don’t do that to him!” He said still feeling the need to protect his ex best friend. Though, he didn’t feel nearly that bad thinking back to all the shit Tsukishima used to do to Kageyama and Hinata, locking them in the locker room with nothing but a flat volleyball. That lead to an awkward morning when Daichi and Sugawara found them cuddling close to each other for warmth. 

“Let’s just get started before I have to get ready for this stupid party..” Yamaguchi groaned. 

\--

Yamaguchi snapped out of his focus on the textbook before him when his phone buzzed loudly, he opened his phone to see a text from someone didn’t want to.

“yahoooo freckles-kun!! I here you will be at ma party!! bring your a game!! there will be mandatory freshmen shots ^_~”

Geez this was worst, he did not want to get drunk around anyone, not to mention he did have work in the morning so he wasn’t supposed to be going out. 

“yeah, i’ll be there but im not staying late!” 

He sat back pulling out his book and trying to continue his homework when he noticed that his pencil was missing. His phone buzzed again.

“ya ya they all say that!!!! but chibichibi-chan and baldie told me u need to unwind sooo… u r def getting wasted. consider it my mission in life” 

He types like he’s already drunk. Yamaguchi mused idly if when he’s drunk he might finally text normal. But, he knew the charade of his character, Oikawa could get anyone tied around his fingers with his cute playful act. 

“good luck! im not that easy to get drunk!’

He wished, he was such a pitiful lightweight. Though he had only gotten drunk once and that had lead to the most awkward moment he’d ever had with Tsukishima. Mistakes are made!

"Again. thats what they all say!! come find me when u get there so your senpai can show u how to really drink!!”

Again. Texts like he’s drunk. Yamaguchi reached for his backpack while texting back to Oikawa, the worst part of texting Oikawa was that he was strangely engaging. His hand hit the ground instead, he could have sworn he’d set that right beside him, he almost heard the quiet shuffle of fabric on carpet before his phone went off again. 

"oh and btws its byob!!” 

“bring your own beer?”

“o yeah that 2”

Yamaguchi tossed his phone across the couch frustrated, this sounded like a huge mistake. He got up to look for his backpack when he saw Tsukki dragging his jacket under the couch. He kneels down to see what was going on and Tsukki had made a fortress under the couch with his various belongings. What a weird fucking cat!! 

He grabbed his jacket and pulled it out with Tsukki attached, looking up tail flicking playfully. "Why are you stealing my stuff?” He asked the cat all too seriously. Tsukki flicked his tail and ran off to hide, he wasn’t really sure how to play with a cat, he was used to rough housing with dogs. He pulled his backpack out from under his couch and found his missing pencil. He glanced up to see the cat peering through the window to his small kitchen, eyes dialated. He checked again for anything else and found his headphones, partially chewed up.

Glancing back up and the cat was gone. He looked around but couldn’t find it, looking at the kitchen again he saw the tip of blonde ears slowly showing themselves. Tsukki slowly moved up to just show him dialated golden eyes staring at him. “Tsukki get off the counter!” He yelled walking over, Tsukki darted down and was gone by the time he reached the kitchen. He looked around feeling completely lost in his own apartment, how are cats so sneaky?!

Turning back toward the kitchen he found Tsukki standing right behind him flicking his tail. Yamaguchi jumped away from the cat cursing loudly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the slow updating, friend drama and working eight days straight is not good for the soul. I hope you guys like this chapter!! Its going to get a tad bit angst but don't fret! Happy endings abound!!

The cold wind bit at his nose as he walked his way to the upper classmen’s apartment, he promised himself over and over that this wouldn’t last long, he was just going to make an appearance, not take any drinks Oikawa gave him, and leave with time to finish his homework. The snow had long packed down and kept the town under a thick cold sheet of white. Yamaguchi didn’t know who could throw a rager in this weather! 

He came up a building close to his school, up on the third floor a single apartment looked packed with people, loud music could be heard from the street. This was sounding even worse than he’d expected. At least he could look forward to seeing his friends.

Reaching the door he found Tanaka and Nishinoya standing outside the room talking to other members of the club. “Heyyy!! You came!!” Nishinoya yelled hopping over to him, “Yes but not for very long! I do have work in the morning! What’s with you guys telling Oikawa I need to loosen up?!” He asked trying not to let his friend jubilant expression soften his annoyance. “Hey! We are your senpais for life!! We know what’s best for you!” Nishinoya stamped his feet. 

“Yes of course getting drunk when I have work in the morning is a great idea” Yamaguchi chuckled, Tanaka rolled his eyes “You are so sarcastic now, I swear Tsukishima was a bad influence on you!” He complained. Yamaguchi shook his head “Tsukishima wasn’t a bad influence on me! He’s not a bad guy!” He tried to defend him while trying not to admit that he always thought this way he just voiced his opinions now. “We know better than that Yamaguchi!” Nishinoya argued. 

“How are clinicals going Noya?” Yamaguchi quickly changed the subject trying not to get back on the habit of defending someone who wasn’t there anyway. “They said I need to stop styling my hair or else I’ll never get taken seriously! Oh! Oh! How is Tsukki?!” He asked changing from annoyed to excitement like the flip of a coin. “He’s a jackass! He keeps knocking my stuff over and scratching me up while trying to stretch! He’s taking my stuff to make a bed and constantly demanding my attention!!” Yamaguchi complained while Nishinoya and Tanaka sniggered quietly. “You’ll defend a jerk like Tsukishima but not a innocent kitty?!” Yuu asked shoving him playfully. “Duh! It’s a cat dude, of course its going to be playful!” Tanaka cackled. 

Two first years from the club walked up behind Tanaka and Nishinoya and seemed to be fidgeting nervously, “Noya-senpai, Tanaka-senpai… is this…?” The shorter boy started. “Oh yes!” Tanaka put a arm around the shorter boy, “Why yes my dear kohai!! This is the best pinch server in Karasuno history and ex captain of the team! The one that Oikawa wants to drag back into Volleyball kicking and screaming!!” He announced while Yamaguchi waved his arms trying to hush him. “That is a lie! Plus I was only captain because Tsukishima only listened to me!” He tried to hide his embarrassment. “That’s not true! You always knew just what to say to lift everyone’s spirits!!” Yuu said quickly. “No! Ennoshita even said that he chose me because Tsukishima only listened to me!” He reasoned before said ex-captain stuck his head out the door, “This is true.” He nodded and beamed at Yamaguchi. “But you were the best pinch server in your third year! No one ever saw them coming” Ennoshita added. “That’s the point of a Jump Float serve! I don’t even know where it’s going!” He stammered feeling the pressure of praise on his neck like a heavy weight. “Pl-Please!! Teach me how to do the Jump Float!!” The shorter first year begged jumping closer to Yamaguchi, who in turn stepped back. 

“That would require that he comes to practice!” 

Everyone looked over to see Oikawa in all his stupid prick glory leaning on his door frame with a red plastic cup in his hand. Yamaguchi shook his head, “Have you been telling these guys that I’m really good? Don’t lie to them!” He groaned covering his face in embarrassment. 

Oikawa grabbed his arm pulling him into the crowded apartment, “You can’t blame them for singing your praise Freckles-chan! They are your friends, afterall. And I’m not lying to the first years, just giving them someone to look up to! Now come on we have to start early if you want to leave early”. He made his way through the crowd high-fiving some familiar faces. Lev spun around just in time to smack Yamaguchi on the back, “Nice to see you Yama!!” He shouted as Yamaguchi almost felt his heart get smack from his ribcage. 

Oikawa made his way into the kitchen and handed him two drinks, one for each hand. “Alright! Before you say something, no more draft talk, we’re done talking about it. I get it. You want to focus on school, I respect that. Though really its not hard to balance both” Oikawa said arrogantly. Yamaguchi opened his mouth to protest his word when Oikawa held up a finger, “But! You have to take a drink every time you talk to someone who’s team you beat!” Oikawa challenged him confidently. Yamaguchi shook his head laughing lightly, he looked Oikawa in the eyes and tool a drink, “Fine, you’re number one then” he chuckled. 

Oikawa’s lips pressed into a tight smile, “Of course freckles-chan!” He slung an arm around Yamaguchi’s shoulder to pull him off in a different direction, Yamaguchi tried to keep his drinks on level as he got taken away. “So I’m sure you know about our practice match with your friends school next week” Oikawa began as they passed a group of freshmen doing shots, he grabbed a shot and swallowed it down before continuing on his merry way. “Ye-Yes I heard! Hinata and Kageyama are excited to come visit us!” Yamaguchi called forward as he made eye contact with a face he’d seen in his last spring tournament at school, with an awkward wave he swallowed more of his drink immediately regretting his life choices. Seriously, never look Oikawa Tooru in the eyes when he is making a challenge, he will never lose. 

“Ahh!! Bokuto-chan!! Looking swell, good work on the spikes at practice!” Oikawa called affectionately to his teammate. He pulled Yamaguchi up to his side to say hello to Bokuto and elbowed him gently when he didn’t immediately take a drink. “Yamaguchi!! Getting the party started already!!” Bokuto said excitedly gesturing to the two drinks in his hands. Yamaguchi shook his head as he took his third hard swallow of liquor, it tasted like cough syrup. What was he being poisoned with?!

Oikawa seemed pleased with himself as he dragged Yamaguchi around making him talk to all kinds of people he knew, mostly, almost specifically, people Karasuno had defeated. Yamaguchi stepped out of a close knit group of players when he saw two familiar faces in the back of the party. 

“Daichi!! Sugawara!!” He called making his way back, Sugawara looked up to see him and lit up “Yamaguchi! We were hoping to see you!! Tanaka said you’d be here!” 

“When did you guys get in town?” He sat opposite them setting his half full drinks down for a moment and shrugging off his jacket finally feeling the uplifting party atmosphere warm him up. “Earlier today, we were going to call you but Tanaka caught us and dragged us to this party” Daichi said brightly as Sugawara leaned over the small table to hug Yamaguchi. “You smell like alcohol already!” Sugawara said looking disappointed at Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi shook his head quickly and felt the room sway a little, he had to slow down. “Oikawa has it out for me. He made a bet that he wouldn’t try to draft me anymore if I drank every time I saw someone we defeated…” he grumbled feeling disappointed in himself, he’d forgotten in his self depreciating mindset just how many teams they’d managed to beat in his high school career, he felt slight disappointment with himself too under Sugawara’s gentle look. 

Sugawara had that strangely warm motherly concern about him that made Yamaguchi always rethink his life choices. “Don’t worry about me! I’m not going to let him get me drunk, I have work in the morning” he reminded himself thinking about what time he has to leave, and how he actually had no food for the angry cat waiting at home. “How are your studies going, Suga?” He asked deciding not to worry for the moment and trying to catch up with his long missed friends. “Great! My finals are coming up and Daichi has been helping me study! Like usual” he laughed shoving Daichi a little. “How are you, Yamaguchi? Are you still working at Shimada’s mart?” Daichi asked, he’d always been proud of Yamaguchi’s development from Tsukishima’s right hip to a hard working individual. “Yeah! It was nice of him to hire me! He always supports me when I need someone!” Yamaguchi added. 

Daichi smiled to himself thinking back to when Yamaguchi went behind even Tsukishima’s back to practice his serve with the man. Speaking of. Daichi couldn’t form the question he wanted to ask, he felt Sugawara glance at him and as their eyes met he knew that Sugawara had the same question he did. 

Yamaguchi noted their quick mental conversation and asked himself when these two would bang and get the weird sexual tension out of the air, but he knew what they would ask. The same question everyone asked him and it never got easier to hear. Sometimes he swore that Oikawa would ask him just to see him flinch.

“Have you heard from-” before Sugawara could finish his sentence Yamaguchi shook his head quickly, “Not at all and I’m doing fine.” He almost snapped. The two glanced at each other again as Yamaguchi took a quick drink of his drink almost wishing he was drunk enough to let himself blubber to the two. But that was not this party. Not this conversation. Not this week. And not this month. He had finals.

Yamaguchi flinched when he felt two hands on his shoulders “Freckles-chan where did you go? I’m not done with you yet! Sorry guys I have to kidnap him for a bit!” He said smiling at Daichi and Sugawara, Daichi shook his head. “Are you going to make sure he gets home safe?” Daichi asked expectantly. “Who said he’s going home? He can sleep in my bed!” Oikawa shrugged as Yamaguchi made a poor attempt to slip out of his grip. 

“Oikawa…” Sugawara said warningly, “I was kidding ‘mom’! You know I’m taken anyway!” He stood straight and looked around, “Hmmmm… Bokuto!” He called across the room. Bokuto perked up looking at him quickly, “You will walk Freckles-chan home tonight when he passes out!!” He commanded. Bokuto stood straight and saluted his captain “Consider it done!” He shouted before wobbling and falling back into a fit of laughter. 

Yamaguchi shook his head remembering exactly why he doesn’t drink, “He’s more drunk than I will be getting!” He argued. “I need to go anyway. I still need to stop by the store!” He slipped out of Oikawa’s grip handing him two drinks when he went to grab him again. “We’ll come with!” Sugawara said standing up quickly, “We should do some catching up anyway” he nodded as Daichi put an arm around Yamaguchi’s shoulders. “Whaaat? But the party has barely started! You guys are laame!” Oikawa laughed walking away. 

“Thanks guys” Yamaguchi sighed smiling at his friends, “Don’t mention it! Looks like someone is getting friendly” Sugawara laughed as they made their way out. “I think he just wants to mess with someone since Iwazumi is having his police training in Akita” Yamaguchi shrugged, he almost felt a pang of jealousy that Oikawa could remain close to someone so far away. 

On the way through the crowds of college kids, Tanaka and Nishinoya decided to tag along to check up on the ex team gossip. It didn’t take long to reach the door for the small group. Yamaguchi felt a breath of fresh air hit his lungs the second he left the small apartment, he felt better not having drinks shoved in his face and being with people he knew best. “I’m not really into his jock parties anyway” Sugawara commented as they headed out, Yamaguchi felt the cold air hit him hard as they got outside. “Oh no my jacket!!” He cursed turning to head back “I’ll be minute guys! Wait up!” He hurried back as the small group stopped to wait for him. 

Yamaguchi pushed back through the hot party air to get to the back area he had been sitting in with Sugawara and Daichi to grab his jacket. Around the small group setting, Oikawa stood with Kindaichi, a old teammate of Oikawa’s from high school. “I get that we need a pinch server, but why does it have to specifically be Yamaguchi? He’s good but we could just teach someone are who actually wants to play to do a float jump? He wants to focus on school…” Kindaichi asked looking annoyed with Oikawa. Yamaguchi didn’t interrupt the small meeting, he hugged the wall quietly listening in. 

“Well, you know Glasses?” Oikawa began, “Tsukishima? Yeah, he used to be in Karasuno too…” Kindaichi didn’t understand the gleam of mischief in Oikawa’s eyes. “They used to be inseparable if you remember? Well the most annoying thing I remember about him was that damn concentration during games. He’s joined the Sendai University Volleyball team. With Tobio and Chibi-chan. I want to see if having his ex best friend, or even, boyfriend is on the other team. I want to see if that would break his concentration.” Oikawa admitted with a quiet smirk. Yamaguchi felt his ears burn and his stomach churn at his words. “That is cruel, even for you.” Kindaichi sighed, “We are studying the subject in class this semester! It is fascinating! Psychology is the best major!!” Oikawa laughed scratching the back of his neck. 

“Yeah. I’m telling Yamaguchi.” Kindaichi resolved turning to walk away before he spotted Yamaguchi staring at them in shock. “… Well, no need now I guess…” Yamaguchi said swallowing the lump in his throat. He walked over and grabbed his jacket hurrying to leave them behind. “Freckles-chan! Come on!! We really do need a pinch server!!” Okinawa called after him but Yamaguchi couldn’t stop his beating heart and rushing legs. 

He pulled on his jacket as he hurried into the snow and found his friends waiting.“Geez did you run?! That should have been faster if you did!! This is why you need to join a sport again!” Nishinoya complained but Yamaguchi’s panicked eyes weren’t missed by Sugawara and Daichi. He blinked away the panic and smiled quickly “Sorry!! I tried to hurry!” apologised laughing. He rejoined his group, “We were just talking about the practice match next week!! With Hinata, Kageyama and Tsukishima coming into town, we just need to get Azumane and these two back and we can have a Karasuno revival meet up!!” Nishinoya filled him in as they head up the street, “That’s true! We’ll have to warn Ennoshita and the others!!” Yamaguchi laughed. 

In a nearby small shop Yamaguchi couldn’t decide what cat food to buy, Daichi and Sugawara watched him stare at the food confused, “When did you get a cat? I thought you were a dog person…” Daichi asked. Yamaguchi gave up grabbing two cans of fish medley (??gross??) And hurried to buy it grumbling, “I am! But this stupid cat hates everyone but me! Nishinoya and Tanaka pawned him off on me and I don’t have the heart to throw him out!” He sighed as they stood our waiting for Tanaka and Nishinoya pick ice cream. 

“He steals my stuff and doesn’t listen to me! He hates everyone else! He even tried to attack Hinata and Kageyama on Skype!” He complained. “Owch man, that sucks!” Daichi laughed at Yamaguchi’s angry gesturing as he explained the cat. The three fell back into tense silence as Yamaguchi thought back on the conversation he’d overheard, Daichi cleared his throat wanting to break the tension, “Yamaguchi… we’re sorry for bring that up earlier…” Sugawara started. Yamaguchi swallowed hard, he eyed the two people, so close, he remembered having someone he almost felt mentally linked to. 

“Daichi… if Suga had chose to go to a different school… would you be mad? Would you ever talk again?” He asked carefully. He didn’t have many people he felt comfortable being painfully honest with. People whom he trusted their opinions and advice. “Well… No, but everyone is different” Daichi tried to explain not wanting Yamaguchi to feel bad. Yamaguchi swallowed hard, Tsukishima was a completely different entity than most of his friends, he wasn’t the friendliest guy, he didn’t like showing or dealing with emotions. But Yamaguchi wanted to believe that the years they had spent as best friends would at least entitle him to some kind of awkward long distance friendship! His thoughts veered back to the conversation he had heard earlier as he watch Nishinoya and Tanaka argue about which ice cream was better. 

“Oikawa wants me on the team to try and upset Tsukishima…” he muttered to the two. Sugawara swallowed hard at his words, “What? Who-Who told you that? I’m sure that’s not true” Sugawara said quickly, although, he couldn’t say he didn’t see Oikawa stooping that low. “I heard it just now when I went back for my jacket… He wants me so that Tsukishima will lose concentration… Can you believe that? It wouldn’t work anyway, Tsukki- Tsukishima wouldn’t care that much…” he quietly decided. 

He looked at the two staring at him in quiet shock, "Don’t… tell them” he gestured to Nishinoya and Tanaka, “They love volleyball so much I don’t want them to have a reason to be mad at him…” he sighed feeling bad for being so upset at Oikawa. “… We understand” Daichi put a comforting hand on his shoulder, Yamaguchi looked at his warm smile and felt better. “They would want to know… you know that right?” Sugawara asked looking up at him, “I know…” Yamaguchi sighed. 

“Are you going to go?” Daichi asked worriedly, “I want to go see Hinata and Kageyama and cheer the team on but… To see Tsukishima… damnit I don’t know…” he sighed. 

“Just go.” Sugawara said quickly determination in his eyes, “Don’t let Tsukishima make you uncomfortable” he said grabbing Yamaguchi’s arms and shaking him a little, “You deserve to see your friends!” He assured him. Yamaguchi bit his lower lip looking away, he knew that Sugawara was right… But it didn’t make it any easier to hear. “You’re right, I should go” he resolved fidgeting with his sleeves, he looked up and smiled at Sugawara warmly feeling better already. “Don’t worry we’ll be there with you!” Daichi added. 

“You mean it?!” Nishinoya yelled coming out to hear the last part of the conversation. Yamaguchi nodded smiling “I’m only coming to cheer you on! I’m not playing!” He quickly added as Nishinoya hugged him tightly. “The Karasuno revival meet up is on!!” Tanaka yelled into the crisp night air. “Shut up you’re going to wake the neighbors!!” Daichi yelled at him.

Yamaguchi unlocked his door letting his friends in, “Wow! I like how you decorated!” Sugawara said, he hadn’t seen this place since Yamaguchi first moved in. Him and Daichi’s eyes quickly fell in a yellow cat curled up in what they could only determine as Yamaguchi’s torn down curtains. “Tsukki what the hell?!” Yamaguchi yelled shooing the cat off the felled drapery and picking it up. Sugawara grabbed Daichi’s arm, “It… it looks just like him…” he muttered trying not to giggle like mad. “So… Who named the cat?” Daichi asked the two boys relaxing on the couch, “We did!” Nishinoya chimed trying to pet the cat who hissed and spit at him. 

Yamaguchi walked up to them “At least take your shoes off!!” He said as the cat curled around his ankle purring loudly. “Aw he does like you” Sugawara kneeled down to get a closer look at the golden eyed cat. He reached out to the cat and chuckled when it turned and walked away boredly. “He certainly does act like a certain someone…” Daichi chuckled quietly as Tanaka tried not to laugh louder. “Don’t you two start!” Yamaguchi snapped fixing some papers that the cat had lovingly knocked over onto the floor. He sat on the couch and felt a furry face push against the back of his head and neck, Tsukki made his way onto his shoulder purring loudly in his ear. Sugawara and Daichi sat down with them, “I can’t believe how much that cat likes you!” Tanaka sighed watching the cat curl up in Yamaguchi’s lap as he absentmindedly pet the cat.

“I don’t even understand why he likes me so much! He’s just made himself at home like he’s always been here” Yamaguchi shrugged, “At least you have an attack cat now” Nishinoya said laughing at the incredulous look Yamaguchi gives him for that comment. Though the glaring cat could probably chase a grown man out of his apartment.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You guys are just so great!! Just wow!! I love you all!!! I hope you guys will like this chapter!! Don't worry in the next chapter we might get a change of POV and see this through someone else's eyes!! Bare with meeee

It was blurry. Not entirely but the edges were faded. The only thing Yamaguchi could make out was the hands on his cheek and the warmth of his face. A quiet hum could be heard in the background, it was comforting. 

He opened his eyes to see Tsukishima staring into his eyes, ”…its a dream…“ Yamaguchi sighed to himself letting the dream happen and listening to his words. “I missed you…” that familiar voice whispered, words he’d never really heard from Tsukishima. The hum got louder, like a warm growl of a volcano. 

A hand on his side as he felt Tsukishima pull him closer, he wanted to feel his lips but all he can feel is heat on his face. He wanted to breath in slowly but he can’t. Why can’t he breathe? His face is hot. Too hot. 

He reached out but he couldn’t touch Tsukishima. He opened his mouth to say something but he felt cotton in his mouth. Why couldn’t he breathe?! 

He reached up to his face as the dream started to fade into black. He felt soft fur. The rumbling was louder. 

Why can’t he breathe?!

“TSRMMMMKIIII!!” his voice muffled under the fur of a happy cat sleeping on his face. He snapped up sending the cat flying to the edge of the bed. Yamaguchi gasped for breath wiping the fur off his lips and face. 

Tsukki sauntered back to him chirping and trying to sit on his lap, “Oh my… fucking god Tsukki!!” He growled trying to push the affectionate cat away. He got up stretching and shivering in the cold, he hadn’t dreamt about Tsukishima in months. The crisp air chilled him to the bones, remembering his dream made him shiver even more, it was no secret to himself (or almost anyone else) that he was in love Tsukishima. 

He’d known for years, almost since he had first entered puberty. Although he’d managed to keep feelings a secret from his crush, his stomach always did flip flops around Tsukishima. Even the stupidest things could send his heart fluttering and his pulse pounding in his ears, like the way he looked after a heavy workout or the way he smiled, though ever so rarely. Ugh! This was not the time to be thinking about him!! 

Yamaguchi wracked his brain trying to push Tsukishima from his mind, he had two tests today and he hadn’t even started his morning jog. Despite enjoying his freedom away from a sports club, he didn’t feel awake without exercise in the morning. Stretching, he felt the bones in his back pop into place, he let out a satisfied groan. He checked his phone to find a text from Makoto telling him to come in for a late shift instead if a morning shift. Awesome! More study time!

Jogging was also a good time to listen to music, he never had chances to enjoy listening to music like he used to. The sky was blue and the morning air felt great in his lungs as he rounded the corner only to narrowly avoid another jogger. A half step over and he found himself tripping onto the ground. 

“Oh!! Sorry Tada-chan!!” A apologetic voice chimed from behind Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi groaned loudly turning to see Oikawa running in place. “Morning jog?” Oikawa asked chuckling, he held his hand out to Yamaguchi to help him up. Yamaguchi huffed loudly and glared up at him. This was not the person he wanted to run into after last night! But; his mom didn’t raise him to be an ungrateful person so he took the hand and let Oikawa pull him to his feet, he mumbled out a quick thanks before trying to hurry off. 

A hand gripped his wrist before he could leave, “Wait! Tada-chan I…” Oikawa began trying to think of words to absolve him of fault in the matter. Yamaguchi sighed and stopped to let him talk, “I’m sorry you heard that last night… I know you don’t like underhanded actions but… You know how much it would mean to Noya and Tanaka if you came… Chibi-chan and Tobio too…”. 

Yamaguchi crossed his arm with a heavy frown set on his face, “Don’t try to make me feel bad…” he said annoyed, “Save your words anyway… I’m coming to the practice match” Yamaguchi said. Oikawa’s eyes lit up excitedly, “Really?! So you forgive me!!” Yamaguchi quickly stopped a incoming hug. 

“No I haven’t. And I'm not playing! I’m just there for my friends, you are not going to use me to make Tsukishima uncomfortable!” He turned to run off. Oikawa watched him run off and grinned, “That’s what you think” he chimed and turned to run away.

Yamaguchi opened the door to his apartment, pausing he turned to look at Tsukki, who let out a long loud meow watching him closely. “Behave!” He commanded the cat and closed the door, he was glad that his first class was not until 10 am so he could take his time after his jog. 

The sun was finally out to try and warm the cold city, Yamaguchi felt relieved that he didn’t need his thick jacket today. He watched the volleyball team jogging past the front of the school, he gave a short wave but from the look of pain in their eyes, it looked like more than one of them had hangovers. Yamaguchi chuckled quietly at their pain trying not to let them notice. Nishinoya noticed him walking and rushed over all smiles and shouting before taking a leap right in front of him. 

Yamaguchi jumped back a bit, “Geez I can see someone was responsible on this team” he joked eyeing the other and then seeing Oikawa leading the pack looking like he had never drank a drink in his life, how does he do that?! Nishinoya followed Yamaguchi’s gaze and shrugged, “Dude I don’t know how he never has hangovers… He drinks more than anyone” Nishinoya complained. 

“Who knows… Don’t forget your test today” Yamaguchi reminds him, he felt like a parent to the older boy. Nishinoya’s smile fell immediately, “Oh fuck I forgot!!!” He yelled pulling at his hair, Yamaguchi covered his mouth trying not to laugh at him. 

“Do you want to study before class?” He asked with a gentle smile, this wasn’t the first time and Yamaguchi knows it will never be the last time. Nishonoya’s eyes brightened again “You are the best kohai!!” He hopped with excitement, “You can come to practice and study with me!!” Nishinoya said quickly. ‘I should have seen that coming’ Yamaguchi groaned in his head, “I don’t think that’s a good idea” he tried to explain but Nishinoya persisted. 

“Come on I don’t have much time! I’ll continue practice, you can ask me the questions, my blood will be flowing, my memory will be better!” He argued jumping with excitement. “Tanaka too! He probably forgot!” Tanaka heard his name and walked over, “I didn’t forget anything!” He said loudly getting offended. “You studied for the math test?” Yamaguchi asked actually surprised. 

Tanaka’s face fell and paled, “FUUUUUCK!!!!” he screamed. “Tanakaaaa what are you yelling about?” Bokuto yelled running over to the small group with Akaashi following quietly. “Yamaguchi is going to come to practice to help me and Tanaka study!” Nishinoya announced excitedly. “You’re finally coming to practice!” Bokuto moved to grab Yamaguchi and pick him up. 

“Hey! Hey! No no no!! Bokuto put me down!!” Yamaguchi yelled trying to push him away, he wasn’t short by any means but Bokuto’s exceptional height and strength left Yamaguchi feeling like a rag doll. “Hey now I have a weight to run with!” Bokuto yelled excitedly lifting him high and running off with him. Akaashi rolled his eyes, “Like a new toy…” he followed shouting “Put him down!”.

Yamaguchi ducked away from an incoming volleyball, sitting at the side of the court by Nishinoya and Tanaka. “Sorry!!” Lev yelled at him as he caught the ball Yamaguchi tossed back. Yamaguchi tried to straighten his papers and get back to studying, he felt overdressed in his jeans and jacket while everyone ran around in workout clothes. 

“Toss me a hard one Ryuu!!” Nishinoya shouted as he started getting pumped up. Its hard to study when his friends can’t focus on anything but volleyball! But Yamaguchi had a feeling that if he wasn’t there to take pity on them they would no doubt fail. “Noya! Tanaka! How do you expect to study like this?” He asked using a textbook to bat away another incoming ball. 

“Just call out the questions and I’ll solve them out loud! Harder!!” Nishinoya yelled knocking a ball back to Tanaka, “That’s such a good idea!!” Tanaka yelled back getting pumped up. “Guys this is math!” Yamaguchi yelled at them avoiding a ball that almost hit him again, his friends were morons.

“Tanaka! Noya! Go get dressed and stop messing around!” Ennoshita yelled at the devious duo. They froze looking at him, Ennoshita was definitly using his captain voice. 

“But… practice…” Nishinoya whined, “But nothing! Do you want to fail? You should take this seriously! Yamaguchi has more important things to do than teach you two.” He concluded his arms crossed over his chest. Tanaka and Nishinoya shrunk into themselves and hurried off to get dressed. The fear of god (and Ennoshita) restored.

Yamaguchi sighed happily and fixed his papers again, “Thanks Ennoshita” he said looking up at his ex-captain, “I’m glad they graduated on time, if they had still been on the team when I was captain I probably would have lost my mind… Like Daichi…” he sighed. 

“Yeah, I don’t miss being captain…” Ennoshita shrugged and looked over at the others, “Looks like they’re calling for a break, good timing” he chuckled. “Ugh he gives everyone a hangover and then does these insane drills!” Bokuto complained, Yamaguchi pulled out some aspirin and tossed it to him. 

“Oh thank gooood!!” He cheered sitting down next to him to swallow some pills. Akaashi walked over and drank from his own water bottle thanking Yamaguchi for the pills, “Can’t wait to see everyone again!” Bokuto seemed to vibrate with excitement, “Its going to be so cool to kick Hinata and Kuroo’s ass again!” He said. “Yeah it’ll be great to see them” Yamaguchi nodded, “So you’ve decided to come?” Ennoshita asked tossing a volleyball into the air a few times. 

“Yeah but I’m only cheering you guys on, I’m not letting Oikawa drag me into the match…” he said quickly. Akaashi smirked, “You say that but that guy always gets his way” he shook his head bumping a shoulder toward Oikawa who was showing a underclassmen how to serve, “He has a remarkable amount of charisma” Akaashi added, though disdainfully. Oikawa perked up noticing the group staring, “No need to stare guys! My secret to being this amazing is simply gods great gift!” He said loudly blushing and rubbing the back of his neck and managing to pose, “Get bent!” Kindaichi yelled. 

“Are you looking forward to seeing Tsukishima, Yamaguchi?” Akaashi asked looking over at him. Yamaguchi felt his breath catch in his throat, why did everyone have to mention him? He bit his lip and looked away quickly, “Oh um… Yeah…” he stumbled over his words, he felt like they were a couple that had a big messy break up and didn’t tell their friends, even though he and Tsukishima had never been in a real relationship. 

“Haha yes!! I can’t wait to wipe that stupid smirk off his face!!” Bokuto yelled pumping his fist in the air, “I haven’t seen Tsukishima in a while! How is he doing?!” He turned to Yamaguchi and noticed the down turned expression. “Hey… You alright?” his excitement turned to mild worry. “I actually have no idea… He doesn’t talk to me anymore…” Yamaguchi sighed and shrugged.

This. Again. He’d lost count of how many times he’s had this conversation with people they both knew, this is why he generally avoided the club; having a strange mix of people he’d known and gotten to become friends with after years of friendly competition was hard without his original team. “Whaaat? Why? You two were inseparable!” Bokuto asked leaning close to try and discern the reason in his eyes. Akaashi grabbed his collar and pulled him back “Stop pestering him. Obviously something bad happened.” He looked over at Yamaguchi, “You don’t have to tell him, he’s just nosey” he explained. 

Yamaguchi laughed a little trying to smile at them, “Its okay, nothing really bad… I decided to go to this college instead of the one Tsukishima was going to since this one had a better teaching program, when I told him, he got mad and we sort of got into a fight. He hasn’t talked to me since.” Yamaguchi shrugged, he didn’t mention the calls unanswered and texts unread. He didn’t mention his sleepless nights. He didn’t mention how much he blamed himself. “… What a dick.” Bokuto said breaking the tense air, “What? No you’re his friend! Plus he’s not a dick! He’s actually a good guy!” Yamaguchi argued defending Tsukishima out if pure habit (and feelings). 

“Ugh stop defending him Yamaguchi!!” Nishinoya yelled coming onto the group with Tanaka fully dressed, he didn’t need to know what they were talking about to know that if Yamaguchi was defending someone, it was Tsukishima, “He can’t help it, he’s been defending Tsukishima for years” Tanaka said sauntering over. Yamaguchi scoffed and started packing his papers and books up, “He’s a good person! It’s just hidden deep…” he mumbled. “Under layers or sarcasm and general jerkiness” Bokuto finished for him. 

“It’s stupid of him to toss you aside after your the one to get him to get serious about playing…” Akaashi added. “What are you guys talking about?” Yamaguchi tried to think of what they were talking about but his mind was drawing a blank. “How did it go…? ‘What about your pride?!’ No, yeah” Bokuto tried to imitate Yamaguchi’s voice and words terribly. Yamaguchi felt his face heat up quickly, “You-You guys heard that?! That was our first year!” He covered his face getting up quickly to get away from them. 

“Yeah man when you get worked up you just get louder! The whole camp heard you two!” Bokuto laughed. “I-I do not!!” Yamaguchi almost screeched his volume only further proving Bokuto’s point. His face exploded with red as he hurried off, “Come on I have class soon!” He called back to Nishinoya and Tanaka as they hurried after him waving goodbye to their teammates. Yamaguchi couldn’t be that mad since they were only trying to remind him what a jerk Tsukishima was. But goddamnit, he could never see him that way… No matter how hard he tried.  
–  
“I’m home, Tsukki!” Yamaguchi called into his apartment, laughing at himself for a moment before seeing the cat sleeping on his couch. Tsukki opened his eyes and stretched yawning before getting to greet him with a few well placed chirps, “Uh huh act cute before I find the mess you made…” he eyed a trail of toilet paper leading down the narrow hall to a torn up roll at the edge of his door frame. He sighed inwardly, “Goddamnit Tsukki…” .

After cleaning up the small spaced out messes Tsukki had left in his absence, he sat at his computer with a cup of coffee and started his homework. Tsukki moved from being curled at his side and rushed off to no doubt destroy more things his owner loved. Yamaguchi idly checked his emails, two more from Yachi. 

“Everyone is super excited about the match next week! I’m going try and visit as well with the boys!! Hinata has a plan to make me stow away but I’m really not up for that!!!”

Seeing Yachi would be a great thing to look forward to, he missed her. She has become his second best friend. The second email was a picture of a dog, his favorite kind of dog. A cheery faced Golden Retreiver outside a corner shop. He smiled widely, she always knew how to cheer him up, even if she had no idea he needed it. ‘I should call her’ he thought idly sipping his coffee. He opened a message from Hinata that had a picture of him and Kageyama taking a poor selfie with the same dog, it was nice to see them getting along again. 

He couldn’t believe those idiots had managed to figure out their emotions somewhere in their sophomore year. Worse than that, they had managed to start going out before Yamaguchi had even started to consider telling Tsukishima how he felt. He remembered the awkward encounter that he and Tsukishima had with the two, accidentally outing them to the team. 

Walking in on the two making out in the locker room had lead to Tsukishima teasing them endlessly until Kageyama admitted it out loud to the group. The more he thought about it, Tsukishima was kind of a jerk. But if they didn’t want to get caught why would they make out in the locker room right before practice? Idiots… 

Yamaguchi felt a touch of envy for them regardless of their idiocy, they managed to confess, stay together and successfully have arguments without breaking up.

He and Tsukishima’s long term friendship didn’t even survive one fight.

He was almost glad he hadn’t never disagreed with him before or else their friendship would have been shorter. Almost. 

Maybe if he hadn’t been friends with him for so long, he wouldn’t have developed feeling for him. He could have saved himself this pain.

CRASH!!

Yamaguchi jumped out of his deep thoughts scrambling not to drop his laptop at the sound of breaking glass in his room. “Oh shit Tsukki!” He cursed under his breath setting his laptop aside quickly and rushing to his room worried for the troublesome feline. 

Tsukki sat on his dresser staring at him innocently, he let out a sigh of relief before he saw the mess. One of the only pictures he had of him and Tsukishima before the fight. They had just won regionals, Yamaguchi hugged an exhausted but smiling Tsukishima, both of their faces were red from exhaustion and Tsukishima’s arm curled around his waist for the picture. It looked like he was smiling more at Yamaguchi than his mother behind the camera. She had given it to him when he graduated saying that their friendship would overcome the odds. She had told him he was still like a son to her. 

Yamaguchi gently picked up the picture, it was the only good picture he had of them. This cat had destroyed something he loved. He felt his nose scrunch and his chin wobble but he swallowed hard to keep his tears from spilling. 

“Damnit… damnit Tsukki what the hell?!” He demanded looking at the yellow cat. The cat stared back, looking bored and emotionless and for the first time since he had seen that cat curled up under a car, he really saw Tsukki in his eyes. How did he miss the resemblance?! Those cold golden eyes looked straight through him. “Why…?” He asked holding the picture up to the cat, “Why did you knock this over?!” He asked his voice quivering lightly, as if the cat would answer with Tsukishima’s voice. 

He wanted to hear it. He sighed and looked away feeling his eyes start to tear up. “This is stupid…” he whispered, he was not about to yell at an animal. 

This cat wasn’t Tsukishima. He just hated everyone else, glared all the time, hated loud noises, looked constantly bored and acted out accordingly. He was quiet and liked when Yamaguchi would play music out loud, he slept on Yamaguchi often and liked to attack anyone who came near. “This is fucking stupid” Yamaguchi groaned sitting on his bed, he looked up when he heard a soft thump to see Tsukki sitting at his feet staring at him. 

“You’re just like him…” he finally admitted, he reached down and picked up the cat staring into its eyes, “Why does he hate me for not going to the same school?” He asked the cat. No response. “Does he even care that we don’t talk? Did he ever care?” He asked setting the cat in his lap, Tsukki watched him boredly before leaning up and placing a paw on his mouth before he could continue. 

Yamaguchi almost sputtered and pursed his lips in shock, ‘did… did this cat just tell me to shut up??’ He thought staring at the cat. Tsukki leaned back and curled up on his lap, “… I’m sorry Tsukki… You’re just bored aren’t you?” He asked scratching under the cats chin. He looked at the picture, it wasn’t ruined, but maybe he needed to put it away for a while. Tsukki reached up to paw at the edges, so Yamaguchi shook the picture a little to coax the sleepy cat up and off his lap, Tsukki followed the picture stretching as he reached towards it. Yamaguchi chuckled quietly and set the picture down petting the cat, “I guess I should go buy some supplies to keep you around…” he said affectionately. 

For once he actually felt like owning this cat. “What do I need…? I better call Noya… I know I need food… toys… litter box…” he glanced at the cat suspiciously “Tsukki… What have you been using as a litter box?”.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukki makes himself at home and gets a little crazy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaahhh sorry this is so late!! I love you all I can't believe my hits broke 900 you don't know how much this means to me!!

Nishinoya stood outside of a nearby pet store waiting for Yamaguchi, rocks back and forth on his heels. It was the only one in the area that was open this late and his friend was clueless to anything cat related. But; that’s where his future veterinary degree came in handy. He hadn’t stopped grinning since Yamaguchi had called him to ask for help buying supplies for the cat. 

The quiet tap of shoes nearby caught his attention as he turned to see Yamaguchi running up to him. “Hey!! Did you find what he using as a litter box? I can’t believe you didn’t buy one before!!” He snickered at the disgruntled look on his friends face, “I’m bleaching my closet later” Yamaguchi grumbled looking away. He had never owned a cat!! This was all new!! To be honest, before Tsukki he didn’t like cats, they creeped him out. 

“Come on I’ll get you set up! It’s great to see you taking responsibility for Tsukki!” He opened the door and walked into the warmer store. A quiet hum of various animal noises filled the space along with colorful assortments of treats, toys and even clothes. Yamaguchi found himself immediately drawn to small brightly lit cages in the back of the store with puppies inside, he touched the glass and couldn’t help the baby talk that he spoke as a small beagle jumped onto the glass barking at him and getting super excited. Nishinoya walked over and shook his head, serious if there is one thing Yamaguchi goes nuts over; its puppies.  
“Okay Cats:101 Dogs are usually the enemy, they do not get along” he said shaking his head. “Whaaat? But maybe Tsukki would like him too…” Yamaguchi actually whined, “Really? Think about that cat…”. There was no way in hell that Tsukki would like anything so loud and jumpy. Yamaguchi seemed to reach the same conclusion, he whipped out his phone and took a quick picture of the dog to send to Yachi. She would love this dog!!

“Alright man, to the cat section!” Nishinoya grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to a small corner of the store filled with cat supplies. “Alright so is Tsukki neutered?” Nishinoya asked looking over at Yamaguchi who shrugged, “I can’t say that I’ve looked at him that close…” he tried to think back to the angry cat. “Well if not you should seriously consider getting him fixed bro, if he’s not then he’ll start marking his territory and trying to get out to mate with other cats, when they go into heat they’re loud and aggressive” Nishinoya explained. “Maybe he’s already in heat…” Yamaguchi shrugged but from the whole ‘marking’ thing Nishinoya mentioned he had to get a better look to make sure this cat wasn’t pissing on everything he loved too. 

“We should pick a bowl for him” Yamaguchi said looking at the small ceramic bowls with cute prints on them. Nishinoya picked up a small white bowl with strawberries printed on it, “What about this one?” He asked with a grin, Yamaguchi frowned “Wrong Tsukki…” he said rolling his eyes and picking up a small blue bowl with skeleton fish all over it. “Oh come on he’ll probably love this one more! You know what, I’m buying it for him!” Nishinoya concluded. “Alright alright, I guess he might like it too… I’ve gotta get some toys too, he keeps destroying my stuff” he walked over to the brightly colored wands with balls of feathers on pieces of elastic. For some reason the image of the real Tsukki with cat ears regarding the brightly colored wands with disdain came to his mind. Yeah. Gonna pretend that didn’t occur to him at all. “What’s with that look? Your face is all red” Nishinoya pointed out leaning close to him, “What what?!” Yamaguchi’s eyes snapped to him coming out of his daze. “Nothing!!” He jumped back and Nishinoya had a glint in his eyes and a wide smirk. “Oh no no tell me!” He moved to stay in Yamaguchi’s bubble. 

“Would you kids hurry up I want to close eventually!” The grumpy shop keeper yelled at them. Yamaguchi turned grabbing Nishinoya’s head to force him to bow, “W-We’re sorry!” He apologized hurrying to grab a couple wands and felt mice. The shop keeper grumbled and went back to reading his paper. “Sorry Noya, its a habit from club” he said feeling bad for grabbing his hair like that. “Don’t worry Daichi and Ennoshita did it too, it’s the true sign of a captain” he beamed at Yamaguchi like he was proud. “Which really means we have always been a team of intimidating jerks” Yamaguchi reminded him. “You did it too in your first year!” Nishinoya reminded him elbowing him in the side. “I did not! Tsukki-shima did and I just… didn’t leave his side…” he grumbled looking away. Not that they had to put much effort into looking scary in their first year, Asahi was scary enough for all of them. “Oh right, hey did you get a hold of Asahi?” He asked the shorter boy. Nishinoya let out a frustrated noise, “He missed our Skype call last night! Next time I see him I’m gonna break his jaw” he growled as Yamaguchi looked through the different brands of cat litter and let out a hum of approval. “And his hips” he growled out his scowl turning into a grin. Yamaguchi choked on air, he would never get used to his friends’ inappropriate declarations, especially when his own friends are involved. “I-I didn’t need to know about that!” He picked up and examined a self cleaning litter box, but the sticker price forced him to put it down quickly. “Aw! You’re so innocent, Yama! Don’t worry, as your senpai for life, I am glad to give you the birds and bees talk!” He jumped and slung an arm around Yamaguchi’s neck and pulled him to his level. “Oh god no that is definitely not necessary!” Yamaguchi tried to pull away from the short libero. “Don’t be embarrassed Yamaguchi! Sex is natural! And awesome!” Nishinoya said tightening his grip on Yamaguchi’s neck. In response to the tight hold on his neck, Yamaguchi stood straight up until Nishinoya’s feet left the ground. He kicked and grunted before falling limp, “You are a jackass, Yamaguchi” he grumbled letting go as Yamaguchi tried not to crack up too much. 

His eyes snapped over to small bags of green chopped up leaves. “Oh hell yes!! We gotta get this!” He grabbed a small bag and held it up to Yamaguchi. “What is this?” He took the bag eying it suspiciously. “That, my friend, is catnip! How do you not know what that is?? Kitty weed?? Man give this to Tsukki and he will be an entirely different cat!!“. That sounded too good to be true… “Let’s get some beer, call over Tanaka and the guys and watch Tsukki lose is fucking mind!” He cackled bounding off. Yamaguchi shook his head chuckling and grabbed his purchases to pay for them.  
–  
By the time Yamaguchi and Nishinoya arrived at his apartment Tanaka and Ennoshita were already there waiting outside. “I didn’t know you got a cat!” Ennoshita chuckled. “Oh man you’re gonna love this! This cat!” Nishinoya leaned in close to whisper. “This cat’s just like Tsukishima” he whispered loudly grinning like an idiot to Ennoshita who grinned at the thought. 

“I can hear you!” Yamaguchi called to him rolling his eyes, “Oh boy, can’t wait for a cat to act like it’s better than me” Ennoshita laughed as he held up a six pack, “This good?”. Nishinoya grabbed the six pack and hurried into the complex, “Heck yeah! Let’s do this!” He hurried in. Yamaguchi followed with Ennoshita and Tanaka, “Do be careful though, he is not very friendly…” Yamaguchi warned Ennoshita. “So he’s just like Tsukishima?” He asked walking in with Yamaguchi taking one of the bags full of cat supplies. “…And you’re keeping it?” He raised an eyebrow before yelling at Tanaka and Nishinoya to not run and wake Yamaguchi’s neighbors. “Yeah I’m keeping him, he likes me more than Tsukishima did anyway, he won’t leave me alone most days, this morning I woke up to him sleeping on my face!” He complained, he was glad he wasn’t allergic to cats with how much this cat slept on him. Ennoshita chuckled at Yamaguchi’s whining, if Yamaguchi knew what he did, he probably wouldn’t think that the cat liked him more than Tsukishima had. 

Nishinoya had already used his spare key to get into the apartment and let out a loud greeting to the cat, Tsukki hissed and rushed off to hide in Yamaguchi’s room. “Don’t scare Tsukki!” Tanaka reprimanded him but didn’t lower his own voice. Yamaguchi walked in dropping his bags as Nishinoya opened a beer and handed it to him, he didn’t mind just drinking with close friends like this. “I’ll go get him” he told Ennoshita and walked over to his room, “Tsukki!” He called in pushing the door open a little before the cat rushed out to greet him. Tsukki rubbed against his legs and stood up stretching against his leg and reaching for his hand, doe eyes staring at him with such love. “Yeah, act cute” he chuckled and leaned down to pick up the tabby. Tsukki rubbed against his cheek and purred loudly. “Oh shit you weren’t kidding, he does kinda look like Tsukishima… He doesn’t seem mean though” Ennoshita walked up from behind Yamaguchi and raised his hand to pet the cat. Doe eyes quickly turned sharp with anger and ears turned back against the cats head. Yamaguchi cursed when he felt the cats claws dig into his shoulders as the cat clung tighter. Ennoshita heard the hiss and took a few steps, “Wow, you’re /not/ kidding…” he laughed nervously, the cat seemed to be completely attached to the front of Yamaguchi’s shirt. “Yeah he doesn’t like other people…” Yamaguchi sighed petting the cat, he could see the resemblance even now, especially in the narrowed eyes. “Quick give him the nip!” Nishinoya dug through the bag and produced the small bag of catnip and tossed it to Yamaguchi. Before Yamaguchi could catch it, Tsukki’s eyes snapped open and chirped when the bag hit Yamaguchi’s hand, ears came forward and he reached forward trying to sniff out the herb. Yamaguchi laughed at the suddenly pushy cat holding it away from him while the cat tried to grab at the bag. “Oh god Tsukki” he chuckled trying to maneuver the cat to the ground using the bag to lead him, he opened the bag and took out a pinch of the herb and sprinkled it in his hand. “Noya, you called this ‘kitty-weed’… Is this going to hurt him or something…” he asked as the cat rubbed its face in his palm and ate a little bit of the herb. “Are you seriously worried about your cat getting addicted to catnip?” Nishinoya asked between chuckles. Yamaguchi shot him an annoyed look, he just wanted to be sure. 

Tsukki started rubbing his palm harder and flipped over half rolling half crawling on the ground. Yamaguchi’s face scrunched up trying not to laugh at the way he was acting, Nishinoya and Tanaka had to cover their mouths and back away to avoid ruining the cats’ high with laughter. The cat chirped loudly and jumped up rushing through the living room and meowing loudly before falling back onto the couch and rolling around. 

“Oh my god!! Give him more!!” Tanaka said trying not to cry with laughter. Ennoshita put a hand on Yamaguchi’s shoulder, “Drinks and a show, this is great!” He chuckled, Yamaguchi drank his beer sitting on the couch next to the cat, who immediately started pawing at his hand for more catnip. 

“Oh no I think you’ve had too much!” Yamaguchi poked Tsukki on the nose and watched the cat roll back and off the couch. Tanaka almost choked on his beer, “This is amazing! Oh man we gotta do this again when the whole team is in town” even Tanaka found this cat far too entertaining. “What? He can’t leave my apartment!” Yamaguchi said quickly before he saw the gleam in the others eyes. 

“No… no! You friggin animals are not having that party in my apartment!” Yamaguchi was not going to clean up after that mess! “Come on! It will be awesome!! We can all get shit-faced! When was the last you got really, really drunk Yamaguchi? You never relax enough!” Nishinoya complained elbowing Yamaguchi in the side, who almost choked on his beer. 

“I-I have work! And school! I can’t get drunk every night! Besides I’m a lightweight, you guys know that! Remember my third year? When we won nationals and Tanaka’s sister bought us alcohol because we were ‘adults now’?” Nishinoya hummed smiling widely, “I remember! That was the game we all came out to watch our kohai’s play!! Oh man you got sooo drunk Yamaguchi!” He cackled. Truly, the party they had after winning nationals was probably the most embarrassing moment in Yamaguchi’s life. 

“Yeah, mistakes are made! So I don’t drink like that ever!” He shrugged, its not like he ever enjoyed getting drunk anyway, it always made him unbearably honest. “Mistakes?? Tell us! We are your friends and senpai’s!” Tanaka leaned over toward Yamaguchi. “What? No! I-I’m not telling you guys!” He shook his head shooting away from the devilish two. Ennoshita grabbed both by their collars and pulled them away, “Leave him alone!” He gave both of them a commanding glare, they shrunk away. 

"But Ennoshita…! Surely you want to know Yamaguchi’s embarrassing secret!!” Nishinoya whined. Ennoshita shook his head, “I was at that party too, the only ‘mistake’ Yamaguchi made was playing a very one-sided game of beer pong with Tanaka’s sister…”. Yamaguchi groaned quietly covering his face, “I don’t get it… She drank more than me… I’m really good at beer pong” he mumbled rubbing his face. “Yeah but she scored twice and you were drunk, you are almost a bigger lightweight than Hinata…” Ennoshita explained much to Yamaguchi’s embarrassment. “Besides you and Tsukishima went home… early…” Ennoshita trailed off when he same the way Yamaguchi’s face started to burn red all the way to his ears. He covered his face and groaned loudly, all three mouths hit the floor. 

“YOU AND TSUKISHIMA FU-” Nishinoya started before Ennoshita covered his mouth, “Shut up he has neighbors!” He reprimanded him again. “No! N-No! I-I just…W-We just made out a little! We were drunk!!” Yamaguchi stammered out waving his hands in the air. “When I woke up… I-I left without talking to him about it, I guess I passed out on his bed…” he ran his fingers through his hair his ears burning. 

“He never said anything about it… He must have been too drunk to remember… I-I barely remember that night…” Yamaguchi felt his hands shaking when he talked about it now. He wrung his hands trying to quell his shaking. “Yamaguchi…” Tanaka started to say carefully, Yamaguchi looked up at his friends, his cheeks were burning, he didn’t want to think about how embarrassing the whole night was. 

It was worse that he didn’t even get to remember kissing Tsukishima well… “I don’t know how to tell you this but… Tsukishima wasn’t drunk… I was my sister’s designated driver… Me and Tsukishima didn’t drink” Tanaka said carefully watching Yamaguchi’s mouth fall agape. “I don’t…. I don’t understand… But I… I told him…” Yamaguchi felt the air leave his lungs. His ears burned as he looked at his hands, “What did you tell him?” Ennoshita asked letting go of Tanaka and Nishinoya and approaching Yamaguchi. “I told him I loved him….” Yamaguchi gaped up at Ennoshita looking shocked.  
–  
“Mmmmm lemme down Tsuukkiiii I can waaalk” the whiney drunk boy on his back whined. “No way. You are such a lightweight. Last time you walked into the street” a smile crept on his face where Yamaguchi couldn’t see. The arms loose around neck, a face pressed into his back, the breath on his back, these were the only things Tsukishima could think about. “Aahhh come on this looksstupid… I’m not that much shorter than youuu” the boy on his back kicked lightly to demonstrate and Tsukishima almost considered dropping him. Almost. “ ’m not that drunk Tsukki… m sovering up right now…” his voice is distorted by the alcohol he had consumed. “Yeah? Tell me the English alphabet backwards, without singing” Tsukishima chuckled quietly at the aggravated noise that the boy on his back made. “Mmmnnfuck you Tsukki… you know m'english suuucks” he whined tightening his arms around his neck. He could suddenly feel the others breath on his neck as the drunk one looked up. He hadn’t been this close to Yamaguchi since he twisted his ankle in middle school and had to carry him home, it felt strange now. Yamaguchi’s legs up around his hips and his arms slung under his knees to keep him in place. 

“Tsukki…. Tsukki…” Yamaguchi suddenly started mumbling, “What is it?” He asked not really listening. “Lemme down… I g'na climb that tree” Yamaguchi pointed to a tree in a empty lot. “Shut up Yamaguchi” Tsukishima couldn’t stop the endearing tone of his voice or the chuckle that escaped, “Whaaaat come ooon Tsukki lemme climb th’ treeee” he whined. 

“We’re almost at my place Yamaguchi, you are not coming down until we’re there” he reminded him feeling his head drop back onto his shoulder. He could feel Yamaguchi’s hair tickle the back of his neck, “Tsukkiii…” the affectionate tone of Yamaguchi’s voice made Tsukishima’s ears burn. “You take such good care of meee” he outright giggled snuggling into Tsukishima’s back. You’ve got to be kidding me.

Tsukishima swallowed hard trying not to let his face change or soften. “Shut up Yamaguchi…” he mumbled not letting his voice betray him, “Sorry Tsukkiii” Yamaguchi chimed tightening his hold on Tsukishima’s neck and cuddling into the back of his neck, Tsukishima’s face burned. “Yamaguchi knock it off or I am dropping you” he grumbled leaning back to show his threat. Yamaguchi outright shrieked and tightened his hold on him, “No no no no Tsukki don’t drop me that’s meeeaaannn” he whined. 

Tsukishima heard a quiet shuffling in the bushes nearby, he paused a moment to try and clarify his hearing. “Tsukki why did you stooop?” Yamaguchi asked looking up and over at the bush. 

A quiet meow came from the bush, “lemme down Tsukki…. lemme down” Yamaguchi pushed away and landed on his feet when Tsukishima let go. “Yamaguchi stop, its probably feral, you don’t even like cats!” Tsukishima complained watching Yamaguchi search his pockets before producing a stick of jerky. “Yeah but he’s hungrryyy! Come here kitty-kitty” he cooed with slurred words, holding the unwrapped piece of meat. 

A small, thin cat came from the shadows to approach him, the yellow tabby sniffed at the jerky and glared at Yamaguchi, “Awwww he looks just like you Tsukki… He even glares” Yamaguchi gushed quietly. ’“What I… I do not look like that…” Tsukishima grumbled and watched the cat take the jerky and back into the shadows. He stares at Yamaguchi waving the cat goodbye, there was something tugging at his chest as he watched the way-too-nice boy help the feral cat. Even though the cat glared at him, even though he didn’t even like cats, he helped it. Tsukishima felt a strange connection to the thin, blonde cat; even though he probably didn’t deserve someone like Yamaguchi in his life. Here he was. 

Yamaguchi pushed himself up before stumbling back into Tsukishima’s arms, “Ehehehfuck…” he giggled and looked up at Tsukishima. Tsukishima couldn’t really determine the look in his eyes, he seemed to be lost in his eyes and the more Tsukishima stared, the more lost felt. This is a mistake.

Yamaguchi turned around and smiled warmly, still uneasy on his feet, he seemed to sway slightly before hugging Tsukishima in a vice-like bear hug. “I love you Tsukki!” He cried out burying his face Tsukishima’s chest, and with that sudden declaration, Tsukishima could feel the air leaving his body. He’s drunk. He’s really, really drunk. “Yamaguchi, let go you are drunk” Tsukishima steadied his voice and swallowed thickly, “No.” Yamaguchi refused, his lips pushed into a pout. Stop being so fucking cute! Tsukishima couldn’t break out of the tight hug, years of sports training and focusing on serving had given Yamaguchi the advantage in arm muscles. “Tadashi…” he breathed finally getting him to look up. Those eyes, so full of tender affection, Yamaguchi smiled sleepily and loosened his bear hug only to reach up and grab his shoulders. “What are you.. ” Tsukishima trailed off as Yamaguchi tugged him down to his level and brushed his lips against his. 

Meltdown. Time for a meltdown. This whole scenario was too good to be true. After three years of confusing irregular heartbeats and loosing his concentration staring at Yamaguchi’s eyes, he’d always sort of come to accept that Yamaguchi would never feel the way he did. The way he didn’t miss a beat, even when they locked eyes. The way he always knew what to say when Kei lost his head. The ease of his touch and actions, no hesitation, no uncomfortable staring. He’d always just figured Yamaguchi never felt the racing of his pulse when they were close. He just figured he was the only one. “Mmmmsorry Tsukki…” Yamaguchi started to whisper pulling away before Tsukishima leaned back to catch his lips again. But this time, more firmly. Tsukishima could still taste the bitter sting of alcohol on his lips.

Yamaguchi pulled back to take a breath before barreling in for another kiss, this one heavy with heat and almost painfully slow. Tsukishima moved a hand to the small of his back to hold him in place, even Yamaguchi’s drunken fumbling didn’t seem to damper the kiss as he tried to step closer and almost tripped on Tsukishima’s foot. Tsukishima broke the heated kiss to catch the drunken fool before Yamaguchi burst into laughter at his own fumble. Tsukishima covered his mouth trying not to laugh at him himself, “Come on, we’re almost to my place… Get on my back” he ordered as Yamaguchi almost swayed into a nearby parked car. He shushed Yamaguchi’s chittering laughter and wrapped a arm around his waist to steady him. 

As much as he wanted it. As much as he yearned for it. He didn’t get his hopes up. This stupid, drunken fool was his best friend, who kissed him in a drunk stupor. Of course it was really hard to walk home with Yamaguchi trying to kiss his neck. They may have even kissed a few more times before he got home. 

“Shhh! My parents are sleeping and they don’t need to know your drinking at your age” Tsukishima whispered to Yamaguchi who booed and gave him a thumbs down. Tsukishima put a finger to his lips and felt his ears light up when Yamaguchi kissed the pad of his finger. Stop being cute!! 

He helped Yamaguchi up to his room trying to keep him from making excessive noise. Yamaguchi managed to fling himself onto his bed and flattened out in comfort, “When was the last time I spent th’ night Tsukki?” He giggled quietly rolling to one side of the bed as Tsukishima joined. “I dunno… five years?” He guessed taking off his glasses and laying next to Yamaguchi before feeling arm encircle his waist. “Mmmnn I loove you….” he repeated sleepily. 'Sure you do…’ Tsukishima thought to himself watching Yamaguchi’s breathing slow down. 'We’ll see in the morning…’ he sighed heavily watching Yamaguchi sleep. He wanted to believe. He wanted to believe that Yamaguchi loved him. But despite his actions, he didn’t think he could ever really trust his own feelings not to project themselves onto Yamaguchi. The freckles on his cheeks reminded him of the stars in the sky and he counted them in his head before slipping into sleep himself.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

He slammed his hands down on the alarm clock that shook him from another dream, or memory, both? Probably. Reaching over and grabbing his glasses, he sat up and groaned in anguish from the bright light of the sun peaking through his window. Just what he wanted. Another ill willed memory. It hadn’t even got the best part, but he knew how it ended. In the morning Yamaguchi acts like nothing happens. Tsukishima lies and says he was too drunk to remember. They act like nothing. Fucking. Happened.

Tsukishima checks his phone to three messages from Kuroo and one from Hinata.

Kuroo: 8:58a.m.  
WAKE UP LOSER WE HAVE PRACTICE IN AN HOUR

Kuroo: 8:59a.m.  
just kidding but seriously stop mopping around

Kuroo: 8:59a.m.  
i hope u know im gonna drag you to the practice match with sendai

Hinata: 9:01 a.m.  
kuroo says wake up his phone died -_-

Tsukishima let out an aggravated groan and resigned to getting up and starting his day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try and knock the next chapter out soon! I've hot three more one-shot I'm writing at the same time at least soon there will at least be more fanfics!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukishima and Yamaguchi make mistakes...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god the chapter that almost wasn’t!! I'm sooo sorry guys!! The holidays are kicking my ass in the bakery!! I'm going to try and regain my consistency! Also though we just broke 1000 hit!! I love you guys so much! I can't believe you guys really like this! I'm so happy! Also, Kuroo is awesome to write!

Yamaguchi knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life. He had made a lot of mistakes in his life, not calling Tsukishima the day after their fight, forgetting his jacket on the coldest day of the week, openly admitting to Nishinoya and Tanaka that he loved Tsukishima, letting Oikawa drag him into parties, ect. But this. This was a bigger mistake. He had heard that cats often bring their owners presents to show their loyalty (or pity) to them. But he had never wanted to wake up with a dead mouse in his bed and a more than thrilled cat at the end meowing loudly to wake him up. Tsukki. Was. A. Mistake.

He tossed the black garbage bag into the trash down stairs with a visible shudder, he didn’t like those bed sheets anyway… He didn’t know how much longer he could handle owning the cat if he was going to be waking up to this every morning, although, he almost felt better thinking that the rodent (that had been in his apartment?!) was dead. 

Before he could get his shopping list ready, his phone beeped loudly with a message from Nishinoya.

Noya: 7:58a.m.  
i forgot my textbooks in ur apt!! im in practice!! pls bring it!

He groaned quietly and hurried back to his apartment to find the books Nishinoya had left after their cat drugging and drinking. The two literature books were sitting on his coffee table and were currently the seat of his cat. He shooed the cat away and picked up the books. Tsukki seemed more content than ever after his night of fun and midnight catch. “When did you even find time to catch that thing, Tsukki? Tanaka didn’t leave until 2a.m.!” He snapped at the cat, who in turn, ignored him and waltzed off. That’s right! Tanaka stuck around late last night to talk about Tsukishima. He felt his face light up thinking about what Tanaka had told him. But it didn’t make any sense!

Why would Tsukishima lie about being drunk that night? Given the night had been a underaged drinking blur, Yamaguchi could recall fuzzy memories of kissing Tsukishima. It was possible that he had been lying to avoid Yamaguchi’s embarrassment. But that didn’t make any sense, that isn’t like Tsukishima! Oh god and he told Tanaka and Nishinoya about it!! Ugh they would never let him live this down!!

Heading to the school on his day off wasn’t his idea of fun but at least he could feel the sun finally coming out and defrosting the cold city. He zoned out thinking about the night in question, if Tsukishima didn’t want to kiss him, why didn’t he push him away? Why doesn’t he remember being pushed away or turned down, if there’s one thing he does remember… Tsukishima’s warm back, broad chest and his neck… God Yamaguchi wanted to shout in frustration! 

The gym was empty upon his arrival, the team must be out running, Oikawa must be keeping them tight since they have a practice match later that week with another powerhouse school. (Although they all were powerhouse schools at this point!) He set down the textbooks, the only thing he could hear in the echoing gymnasium was his own sneakers squeaking. The sound was so familiar. He figured he’d wait for Nishinoya to come back so no one else took the books, but what to do until the team returned. 

The idly thought about a red and white volleyball just a few feet away. No better way to pass the time, right?

He walked over, the squeaking of his shoes sounded louder as he got closer to the ball. He picked up the ball and felt the sewn grooves of the familiar ball. It had been months since he had played. He felt actual shame from letting his head get in the way of playing. After all, it wasn’t entirely Tsukishima’s fault he was avoiding joining the team. Trying to avoid a sport he used to enjoy was hard when everyone he knew played. It was his own stupid head that kept him from playing now. Its not like it would effect Tsukishima if he played a little. He tossed the ball in the air and felt the thud as it hit his palms. Less than a year ago, volleyball ruled his life. 

The thought of doing a float jump serve was almost foreign now.

He turned to look at the tall white net in front of him. Glancing at the ball, he made his decision.

He tossed the ball into the air and took his running start and leap, the ball lined up perfectly, so much training, so much work, it all mattered. He felt the ball hit his palm and off it went, teetering through the air without a spin, he could barely see it pass the net before he heard another noise that cut through the silence. A slow clap that hit his ears and knocked him out of his concentration. He almost tripped forward but caught himself, looking over at the now open door of the gymnasium. Oikawa, in all his ‘glory’, stood leaning against the doorway clapping slowly, his eyes looked like the cat who found an injured mouse and the smirk on his lips gave away his smugness. “Good job! You still got it!” He called to Yamaguchi a warm smile settling on his face. 

Yamaguchi felt his face burn, he hadn’t wanted anyone to catch him practicing, but Oikawa most of all. “You know, I was just talking to Bokuto about needing a pinch server… And wouldn’t you know, one just falls into my lap!” He said excitedly gesturing toward Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi frowned deeply, the only noise in the wide room was the sound of the ball bouncing and rolling away. Reading the silence from Yamaguchi as a refusal, Oikawa put on his gentlest smile “Come on, you obviously still enjoy playing, Yamaguchi… Maybe you should let yourself have some fun with your friends” he offered walking over and picking up the ball, “I have an extra uniform, it should fit” he shrugged and turned to Yamaguchi tossing the ball for him to catch. “Stick around for practice! You might even enjoy yourself…” he walked back toward the door to check where the rest of the team was. 

Yamaguchi looked down at the ball in his hands, feeling the sting on his palm. He missed this. He missed playing with his friends, he missed playing with Tsukishima. He looked at Oikawa calling to his team outside, “Hey Oikawa…” he called to him. Oikawa turned around slowly before Yamaguchi tossed up the ball and served it to him, he moved down to receive when the teetering, still ball hit the ground next to him. He looked over a bit surprised at the serve and to Yamaguchi, who stared at him with strength in his eyes. “Don’t get cocky, Captain” he said quickly before walking toward the lockers to get changed. 

Oikawa grinned widely as Bokuto walked up behind him, “Yo! What’s that grin for? Did someone die?” He asked antagonistically. Oikawa couldn’t change his grin, “We got ourselves a pinch server!” He chuckled picked up the ball and flipping it into air in his hands. Bokuto didn’t have to be told who he was talking about, he could tell from the grin on his face that his ‘evil plan’ as Kindaichi had called it was coming true, he scoffed loudly “Did you blackmail him?” He asked incredulously. Oikawa almost snorted but kept his laugh high and attractive, “With what? You know, I think that you think I’m more evil than I am…” he patted his vice-captain on the shoulder. “… I’m telling Iwazumi…” Bokuto deadpanned heading into the locker room for his phone. “What?! No don’t you dare!” Oikawa called after him.  
–  
“Alright team line up! We have a new member!” Oikawa chimed clapping his hands in delight as the large group lined up. Oikawa liked to introduce every new person properly to his brood of players. Yamaguchi swallowed hard walking up to the group next to Oikawa, he could see Nishinoya and Tanaka’s jaws hit the floor. He played with the hem of his shirt trying not to make eye contact with anyone, “Yamaguchi Tadashi! He’s going to be our pinch server! Most of you already know him and how much he has avoided joining” a few chuckles came from the line up. Oikawa turned to Yamaguchi and grinned, “Any words?” He asked opening the floor to him. Swallowing hard, he stepped forward “I-I hope I can help this team in anyway possible!” He stammered out quickly. 

After the meeting adjourned, Tanaka and Nishinoya burst forth grabbing Yamaguchi and shouting “What the hell?! You didn’t tell us you were joining!” They yelled in unison. “Y-Yeah, sorry guys… It was kind of a split second decision” he explained scratching the back of his neck. “Well it’s about damn time! We gotta make sure all that time not spent playing hasn’t made you soft!” Tanaka said with a laughing smacking the brunette’s back hard enough to almost knock him off his feet.

“Ow! Th-Thank you Tanaka…” he mumbled with a shy smile, “How should we go about training?” Nishinoya mused, Yamaguchi could see a workout montage playing in his head. “Let’s just start with practice today! I have to go grocery shopping later” he said quickly, he took a step back from the two and into Bokuto and Oikawa standing behind him. “Now hold on freckles! They’re right! We have less than a week until our practice match! That’s not a lot if time to whip you into shape” the brunette said with a playful wink at the word ‘whip’. “I hate when you talk like that…” Yamaguchi forced a laugh nervously, Oikawa was far too flirtatious with him for his comfort. 

“Bokuto! Get him warmed up!” Oikawa patted the much more muscular boy on the shoulder. Bokuto eyed Yamaguchi and popped his knuckles with a predatory glint in his eyes. Swallowing hard, Yamaguchi remembered that this guy liked to bench press under class men when he was bored. “Let’s get warmed up! First! Three laps around the school!” He clapped loudly, the brunette felt his face pale. This week was gonna hurt.  
–  
Three knocks at the door.

Three more.

“Kei I know you’re in here!” Too fucking bad. Not coming out. Kei was not going out with Kuroo if he could help it. He really didn’t appreciate having Kuroo try to get him to go outside on his days off. He idly glanced at the door currently being assaulted by his raven haired friend, he cuddled closer into the arm of his couch putting his nose back into the book he was trying to read.

“I’m using my spare key! Put your pants on!” Shit. Kei had given him one of those. That was a huge mistake. Before Kei could set his book down and grab the door handle; Kuroo opened the door twirling the spare key in his hand. “I had a feeling you’d be here! You and Yamaguchi broke up six months ago! You’ve gotta go outside someday!!” Again with this shit. Kuroo strolled in ignoring the resounding glare the blonde was sending him, he threw Tsukishima’s curtains open letting in the sunlight. 

“We. Didn’t. Date.” Tsukishima growled going behind him and closing the curtains, it wasn’t the sun he was trying avoid but the shine it made on the freshly fallen snow. He hated it when Kuroo made jokes like that. ‘But thanks for the reminder’, he thought to himself angrily. Seriously, Kuroo was a terrible choice in friends… “Then why are you holed up in here moping?” Kuroo teased grinning at the grimace on the blondes’ face.

“Come on! Me and a couple of guys are doing a grocery run, I know your kitchen is empty!” He gestured at the currently empty kitchen. Damnit. “How do you know?” Tsukishima wished he wasn’t right, he also wished that he hadn’t made friends with someone that could get under his skin so well. It made Kuroo hard to ignore. 

“Because I raid it when I come to steal your WiFi and watch you sleep" he answered like it was normal. Which, granted it was.

“You still haven’t paid your bill?” Kei chuckled ignoring the other part of that sentence, because honestly; he would know. He was a light sleeper. “Hey man, bills are expensive and we can’t all get an academic scholarship!” Kuroo grabbed Tsukishima’s coat and tossed it at him. “Why not? It wasn’t hard. But I guess it would be hard for someone like you” Tsukishima laughed a bit catching the coat, “Well you should be glad! You’re sure as hell not getting a volleyball scholarship with your shitty receives” he teased back enjoying the way Tsukishima’s face darkened. 

“Who is you and 'couple of guys’?” Kei finally asked for clarification. Kuroo walked back to the door knowing that Kei was going to come anyway. “Come on now, Tsukki! If I told you, you wouldn’t come! Now seriously come on! Kenma’s waiting in the car…” he stalked out of the apartment. “Do not call me that.” Kei snapped following, regardless of how much he hated that nickname now. Because after all, Kuroo is right. He ran out if food a day ago and he hasn’t bothered to go get more. As much as it fucking pains him to admit.

“Have you even tried to call him?” Kuroo asked carefully, glancing back at the following blonde. “… He’s better off” Kei grumbled heading down the stairs after him. Kuroo sighed and stared at him until he noticed and looked at him confused, “You don’t know that” he said staring at him soberly. Kei’s face scrunched up with an uncomfortable feeling of guilt. 

“If my childhood friend had told me he loved me, I wouldn’t have pretended I forgot…” Kuroo stared at him until he looked away. His cold eyes could eat away at Kei. “And if I loved him too, I would have told him…” his sober stare turned into grin “Oh wait! I did that! Guess someone else must be a scared little kid..,” he trailed off covering his chuckle. 

“Shut up, Kuroo” he snapped leaving the apartment complex with him. The chill air hit Kei like a brick, he was never a fan of cold weather and on a bad week, his blood was thin as water. His parents had always told him that it was normal in his family to be anemic, it ran in his family. “Oh don’t tell me to shut up! I won’t take that from you, you’re not cute enough!” Kuroo snapped opening the door to his car. 

Kei could see Hinata and Kageyama in the backseat, where he was supposed to squeeze in and Kenma in the front playing his DS. He shot Kuroo a glare, he should have known it would've been these two. “Sorry bro, Kenma has dips on the front” Kuroo said with a grin. “I called dibs for infinity” Kenma reverberated without looking up. 

Hinata was slung around the headrest watching him play. “No! No! Go back! There was another chest!” Hinata said jumping a little in excitement. “No shut up! Do you not see those monsters?!” Kageyama snapped only leaning a little forward to watch. “Alright ya nerds! Scoot over for Kei!” Kuroo said getting into the drivers seat. “Morning Tsukishima!” Hinata called excitedly while Kageyama scooted over to let him squeeze in. 

“Loud as usual, I see.” Tsukishima observed putting on his seatbelt, “Did you bring a food list this time?” He asked glancing at the two. Hinata went to say of course but his mouth screwed shut before he could say anything. “I-I forgot it..” he mumbled quietly looking distraught. Kageyama’s face turned red at the way Tsukushima smirked “W-Well did you?!” He snapped. “I don’t need to bring one, we couldn’t even trust you two to go to the store for water bottles by yourselves.” Tsukishima scoffed. “Hey now play nice kids! Kenma do something I’m driving” Kuroo said keeping his eyes on the road. 

Kenma glanced up for a moment before taking the auxiliary cord and plugging it into his PSP. Immediately, over the three boys banter a loud anime theme ultimately silencing the boys. All cried out and covered their ears, Kenma turned to look at them boredly, “Are you going to behave now?” He asked. “Can’t you just knock my side of the car into a tree on the next turn? Thank you!” Tsukishima called forward. “Keep up that attitude and I’ll turn on Sailor Moon…” Kenma warned him turning the volume back down. “Hey yeah, aren’t you the main character of that show?” Kuroo teased patting Kenma on the head idly and laughing at the glare Kei was boring into the back of his head.

“Oh hey! I don’t know if they told you yet! Suga called me the other day to say that Noya is planning a Karasuno revival meet up, he told me to invite you as well! After the practice match next week, we’re all meeting up and having a party!” Hinata said vibrating with excitement. “You coming?” Kageyama asked glancing at him. 

Tsukishima frowned and looked out the window, “…Pass…” he mumbled. “What?!” Hinata yelled, “Why not? Everyone is gonna be there! Daich and Suga are taking time off to come visit!” Hinata whined kicking his feet a little. “Unlike some people, I don’t live in the past…” he grumbled not looking at any of them. “You are so lame! Kuroo make him come!” Hinata whined to the driver who choked on his air and coughed loudly “Ph-Phrasing!” He cleared his throat. Kageyama stared at Hinata confused as to what Kuroo and Kei were cracking up about. “On the other hand, thank you for that Hinata” Kuroo said trying not to continue laughing, Hinata looked around confused mumbling about not understanding. “Besides, we’re spending the night in town so you might as well…” Kenma said trying to ignore the inappropriate joke.

“Ugh… Fine…” Tsukishima scoffes brooding out the window, “But only if I don’t have to share a hotel with these two! I don’t want to walk in on them trying to make out unsuccessfully…” he added quickly. “That was once!” Kageyama yelled at him, “How do you not know how to lock a door? Seriously are you that stupid? I’ll show you, you turn the little knob and-” Kageyama interrupted Kei’s visible instructions and slow moving words “I’m not an idiot! ” he snapped. “Don’t you start picking fights again Tsukki or I swear I will turn this car around!” Kuroo called back to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mom Kenma and dad Kuroo driving the kids to go grocery shopping tho


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long (too long imsosorryholyshit) awaited climax to our story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I can't express how sorry I am to all of you!!! I have no excuse I'm just useless!! But I promise to finish this fan fiction! ! I was stuck for a while and I didn't have the drive to write until I was on Tumblr and saw a fanfic recommendation post and saw this fanfic on it!!  
> You guys are too good to me!! I almost cried!! After even more fighting with myself I started writing again.  
> It's been rainy this week so on my days off I couldn't go anywhere (I only have a motorcycle) so I spent my days off finishing this!! Again! I love you all!!  
> Enjoy the DRAMA

Yamaguchi walked into his apartment with a heavy sigh of relief, he dropped his jacket on the ground as he collapsed onto his couch with a groan. His entire body ached from the week of insane drills Bokuto had him doing before the match. He heard a quiet chirp of a meow next to him, he glanced over and saw Tsukki staring at him. “Mmnh…” he grunted weakly reaching up slowly to pet the cat. Tsukki closed his eyes relaxing against him, Yamaguchi moved his petting to scratch under Tsukki’s chin with a slight smile.

Tsukki’s erratic behavior had started to calm down little by little, he was acting like a genuine cat. Though, some days he still outright ignored Yamaguchi or attacked anyone who came into his apartment, aside from a very ridiculous first meeting with Bokuto, who had to deal with the cat climbing all over him to get up on his shoulder and smack him in the face. But at least he didn’t outright attack him like he had Oikawa.

“The match is tomorrow…” Yamaguchi mumbled quietly to Tsukki who laid down on the couch beside him purring loudly. “I’m going to see Tsukishima…” he sighed lightly. The thought of seeing Tsukishima had his heart flutter in the worst way, his stomach felt light and hot at the very thought of Tsukishima being in his apartment afterward for the match. He couldn’t believe how much he still loved him, despite all the effort he had put into forgetting about him. “… if Tsukishima does come over, don’t pick a fight with him…” he warned Tsukki. Tsukki chirped and got up to crawl into him, he laid on Yamaguchi’s chest demanding affection. “I’ll probably lock you in the room seeing how we have a whole lot of people coming over…” he mused petting the cat. He couldn’t imagine Tsukki taking a apartment full of people well.

He felt gross and sweaty as the cool air of his apartment dried the sweat to his skin. “Ugh…!” He groaned and tried to sit up to take a shower. Tsukki’s claws dug into his chest through his shirt to keep him still, Tsukki let out a low growl. He laid back down and continued petting the cat with a wince, “Oh man…” he mumbled giving up and staring at the ceiling. “I guess I can wait a little bit…” he mumbled and let the cat use him as a pillow. A very scared pillow.

–

The morning came faster than Kei wanted it to. Being loaded up into the sports van with the rest of the lively bunch he called teammates was not something he could get excited about.

He got shoved into a seat with Kageyama, which didn’t bug him nearly as much as it once had. They usually just slept through bus trips anyway. He leaned his head against the window watching the scenery pass by, “Are you nervous?” His usually sleepy seat-mate piped up, he glanced at the sharp eyed setter. This guy had gotten good at reading others, even if he was still bad at dealing with people. Good enough to even read Kei’s mood.

“And just what would I have to be nervous about?” Kei snapped at him leaning into the corner of their shared seat. Kageyama shrugged looking away from him, “I don’t know but you look nervous… Maybe because Yamaguchi is there? I doubt that you’ll see him though…” He answered looking away.

Amazingly. The setter was probably right. The few practice games the two colleges had hadn’t created issues. Yamaguchi didn’t show up to watch either, not that Kei wanted to see him. He just wanted to know if he had made the right decision, taking the easy way out wasn’t exactly his proudest moment. He definitely didn’t need to see Yamaguchi. Just once.

Kuroo watched the blonde blocker settle back in his seat and glanced at his phone, only a two hour drive and he would have to deal with the whole situation. He looked at his best friend’s texts over the last week. Bokuto had sent him three pictures of a blonde glaring cat and one of his bleeding cheek from the cats’ attack, the text that came with the pictures intriguing him further.

Owl-nerd:  
tsukki the cat!!! tried to kill me!!! yams has an attack cat!!

Kuroo didn’t have to think hard to remember the freckled kid holding the cat still in the second picture. If Bokuto was serious about having a new pinch server, he might have his work cut out for him. He ran his fingers through his hair letting out a frustrated groan, Yamaguchi added as a opponent wouldn’t just cause issues with Tsukki’s concentration but also be another damn thing to watch. Oikawa must be outright cackling right now. Yamaguchi is a exceptional server.

Kenma glanced up from his game at the sound of frustration Kuroo made. “What’s your problem?” He asked noting the way Kuroo’s eyebrows were furrowed. He’s probably agitated and worried about someone. “We may have a obstacle that a certain middle blocker of ours is going to have to overcome… But I’m not sure he’ll be ready for it…” Kuroo said cocking his head back toward Tsukishima.

Kenma glanced back for a moment and shrugged, “Only one way to find out…” He said going back to his game before quietly adding; “You can’t tell how much the wound has healed until you rip off the bandaid.”

Kuroo pursed his lips, considering his boyfriends’ strangely thought-provoking words. “Well, I guess the only way to make sure it goes right is to take matters into my own hands…” He grinned mischievously.

With that, he picked up his phone and started to text Bokuto his plan, ignoring Kenma monotone protesting in his ear, “No. Please. Think of the consequences of your meddling…” He grumbled not really trying to stop him.

Cat-dork:   
bro. I need your assistance in my new plan.

Owl-nerd:  
:?

Owl-nerd:  
Explain!!!

Cat-dork:  
okay. so I need you to hit Tsukki in the face with a volleyball

Amazingly. Bokuto didn’t immediately respond immediately. Kuroo started to wonder if Bokuto had lost his edge in college. Could his best friend not want to hit Tsukki with a volleyball? How could he not? Kuroo cared about Tsukki alot. He couldn’t deny how much he cared about the tall blonde, but even he would hit him in the face with a volleyball. With Tsukki’s attitude, who wouldn’t? His phone beeped loudly.

Owl-nerd:  
That’s just plain mean.

Owl-nerd:  
I’ll do it!!

He knew he could rely on Bokuto.

Owl-nerd:  
wait. you mean the human right? I dont wanna hit the cat D:

Cat-dork:  
Euhftjkbg

Cat-dork:   
obviously. how did college make you stupid? I’m gonna tell Akaashi to stop helping you with your HW

Owl-nerd:   
D:<   
\--  
A annoying beeping roused Yamaguchi from his deep sleep, he whined and cracked his eyes open rolling over toward the lit phone. Tsukki chirped and looked up eyes squinted in the daylight streaming in. He looked unhappy to be dislodged from his perch on the highest point of Yamaguchi’s hip. Stretching across the bed, he crawled back to Yamaguchi’s hip as he started checking his texts. He had three texts from Yachi. The first was a selfie of her and Hinata smiling on the club bus, in the background he could see Kageyama sleeping on what he could tell was a sleeping Tsukishima’s shoulder. Just like old times. He smiled to himself, yawning and stretching. He accidentally moved the sleepy cat on his hip and was rewarded with a glare.

He pet the cat with a chuckle as he sat up and Tsukki crawled into his lap. The others would be in town in only an hour, the game would start in two. He could feel his stomach churn at the thought of being in a match again, even if it was just a practice match. He hadn’t played in a match in almost a year and even with the rigorous training he had been receiving for the last week he was still feeling rusty.

Before he could really start waking up, there was a knock at the door. Who the heck was already up and moving this early? Yamaguchi padded to his front door quickly, calling that he was coming. If it was Oikawa or Bokuto, he swore he would close the door in their face. (If it’s both, he wouldn’t have a chance to close the door.)

He peeked through the small viewer in the door and could see and bouncing Nishinoya standing outside with Tanaka, Ennoshita, Narita and Kinoshita. They all held plastic and paper bags filled with food and booze. “Open up!! It’s freezing out here!!” Nishinoya whined still jumping up and down to try and peek through the one-way glass in the viewer.

“ What are you guys doing here so early?!” Yamaguchi opened the door anyway letting in the cold group feeling the air hit his still sleep warmed body like a brick. The group slid in quickly and Yamaguchi shut his door shivering, “Well, we figured we had to set up for the party early since practice matches always last way longer than they’re scheduled to” Tanaka explained setting the bags on Yamaguchi’s kitchen counter.

“Our teams are usually closely matched, so we always play a full set. And then we play another since everyone is hyped up. And sometimes another if we have time…” Ennoshita continued as Tanaka helped himself to start putting beer in Yamaguchi’s fridge, while also raiding his fridge for food. Yamaguchi hurried over and shooed him away from his kitchen, complaining that what he was trying to eat wasn’t good for a match day and started preparing breakfast for all five of them.

“ And! We had to make sure you wouldn’t try to chicken out of the match!” Nishinoya said moving into the kitchen with Yamaguchi and helping him cut up some vegetables. He bumped Yamaguchi with his hip and grinned at him, they hadn’t had a big group meal like this since finals had started. The group had started visiting Yamaguchi immediately when he had moved into town, waking him up to hang out and eat together had once been a normal thing.

“ Jerks. I’m not going to chicken out” Yamaguchi mumbled starting to cook as the others started to set up for the party later on that day. Tanaka idly tried to play with Tsukki but only was ignored. “Your cat is the jerk, not us!” He whined at Yamaguchi. Ennoshita managed to get the cat to engage in some playing before the cat started to ignore him to demand attention from Yamaguchi. “Oh yeah? Did Oikawa ask you to come here and force me out?” Yamaguchi chuckled handing plates to Tanaka to set up the modest table that would be too small for the five college boys, but it would do.

“No! Well, yeah. But if he really was worried, he would have sent Bokuto. You know that.” Nishinoya laughed handing Yamaguchi the cut up vegetables. “Sugawara trained you to be a good team mom, Yama!” Narita jeered as Yamaguchi threw a egg shell at him, he ducked and threw it back as Nishinoya knocked it into the trashcan midair. “Its not my fault none of you ever-“ Yamaguchi paused to catch a piece of onion that was thrown at Kinoshita by Nishinoya and throwing it back at Narita who was laughing at the horsing around “-take proper care of yourselves!!” He snapped and handed a full plate to Narita to put in the table.

“Ennoshita! A little help!” He called as the others started rough housing worse than before. Ennoshita looked up from once again getting Tsukki to play and stood straight again, “Help him set the table! Stop acting like children!” He walked over and took out silverware to finish setting the table as the others started to settle back down.

If there was a way to start the day, this was the best way Yamaguchi could think of at the moment.

After breakfast was cleaned up and they were all ready to head to the school, Yamaguchi slipped back into his room to grab his duffle bag and looked at the uniform placed out where he could grab it on his desk. The big screen printed number 15 on the shirt felt like it was burning through the shirt.

He picked it up and studied the uniform closely. The well stitched uniform felt so heavy in his hands that were covered with nervous sweat. A new uniform. A new team to be a part of. A new team to let down. Despite everything he’d ever worked so hard to become, his nerves still shook him down to the bone.

In high school he had been the team captain of Karasuno, as well as a feared server during games. But, college was different. Everyone was stronger, could he keep up?

“Yamaguchi hurry up!! Oikawa wants us there thirty minutes early!” Tanaka called back to his room making him jump. “Coming!!” He yelled back looking at the uniform one more time before folding it up and putting it in his duffle bag and rushing to join them in the walk to school.  
\--  
Tsukishima awoke to the loud brakes on the bus stopping them in front of the university. He heard a grumbling from the setter sleeping on his shoulder as he started to wake up a little. He nudged him off gently grumbling, “Get up, your drooling on me”.   
Kageyama sat up slowly blinking and yawning loudly. “Alright orderly this time you children!” Kuroo stood at the front, “Yess!!!!” Hinata vibrated excitedly, Yachi beside him sent a quick text to Yamaguchi to tell him of their arrival. The team got off the bus and grouped together looking all around the campus, “Come on guys the other team is waiting!” Kuroo called back as the group headed into the campus.

“Oh, I can’t wait to see everyone!!” Yachi and Hinata seemed to vibrate excitedly. Close behind, Kageyama and Tsukishima practically had to be dragged to the gymnasium, still yawning and rubbing their eyes. “Ah Tsukki!” Kuroo called to the tall blonde walking over to walk beside him, “Be ready, anything could happen…” he warned with a knowing grin before walking ahead and ignoring the confused glare from the sleepy blocker. “What the hell is he going on about now?” Tsukishima mumbled, half to Kageyama, half to himself. Kageyama follow his glare and shrugged.

Kuroo walked over to the gymnasium door and threw them open with his team crowding around behind him, trying to peek in to see their friends. “Pardon the intrusion!” He called in, his eyes met Oikawa’s across the room and they exchanged a grin.

Slowly, the whole seventeen member team filtered into the gym, and despite waves or childish antics from either team they managed to make a quick line up and bow, shouting “Thank you for having us!”.

Once the formal greeting ended the teams suddenly came together to greet each other. Kuroo caught Oikawa off guard and ruffled his hair, earning a screech and a punch to the gut from him. Bokuto managed to fling himself into Kuroo’s arms and hug his ‘bro’ like they hadn’t seen each other in years. Akaashi and Kenma stood idly by shaking their heads at the boys.

“Yaku!!!” came a scream from the back before Yaku could escape from the impossibly long arms that trapped him and managed to lift him into the air. “Lev! No! Put me down!” He shouted his face turning red from the overly affectionate underclassmen. Once he got his bearings in Lev’s arms he turned in his arms and smacked his head. “What have I said about lifting me into the air?!”

Bokuto, after he was peeled off of Kuroo, ran to catch Tsukishima in one arm and Hinata in the other. Hinata looked more than happy to be picked up by the excitable ace. Tsukishima tried to push him away. “My favorite first years!!” He shouted trying to walk away with them. He only succeeded with Hinata, Tsukishima squeezed away from him and let him parade off with Hinata as they started shouting excitedly (communicating??).

Yachi managed to squeeze through the groups and propelled herself at Tanaka and Nishinoya. “Yachi!!” They both shouted hugging her, “It’s been soo long!!” She shouted hugging them back, finally not frazzled by the loud duo. She looked past them to Yamaguchi, wearing a uniform. Yamaguchi sent her a sheepish smile and a shrug seeing her eyes dart down to his uniform. Tanaka and Nishinoya looked down at the shock in her eyes before grinning widely.

Yachi almost shrieked and ran to hug Yamaguchi. “You did it!! I knew you would!!!” She screamed jumping up to his height and wrapping her arms around his neck to hug him. Yamaguchi caught her with a laugh and spun her around for a second before setting her back down. “Ah! You got taller too!” She said excitedly trying to jump up to him. “What? No, maybe you got shorter” he joked before she punched him in the arm.

Kageyama walked over to Yamaguchi looking just as surprised, “When did you decide to join?” he asked with a small grin on his lips. Obviously, he was happy to see his ex teammate playing. “A week ago…” Yamaguchi shrugged with a smile, Kageyama patted his shoulder. “Nice to have you back” he said warmly, Yamaguchi’s face lit up at his warm words. “It’s nice to be back” he said looking around the room for a moment. Hinata caught his eye from his place with Bokuto and rushed over with an excited yell.

“Yamaguchi!!!!” He almost jump onto Yamaguchi in the excitement. With that shout, the small group of ex-Karasuno had caught everyone’s attention.

Kuroo looked over to see Yamaguchi managing to hold Hinata up in a hug, well he saw that coming. His eyes met Oikawa’s eyes across the room once more. He could have sworn Oikawa’s grin only widened and looked more devilish. Like a mental conversation, Oikawa’s eyes screamed “Yeah, we got a pinch server, better yet it’s Tadashi, put that in your pipe and smoke it you cat-obsessed nerd!”. Kuroo’s glare responded “Touche’ alien-freak”. At least he’d already fucked up his hair.

Once their eye contact broke, Kuroo suddenly realized who else would not take this news well. He around to see Bokuto talking to a now transfixed Kei. But Kei’s eyes aren’t on Bokuto.

Yamaguchi glanced over the vibrating Hinata to make eye contact with Kei.

For the first time in almost a year, Yamaguchi was staring into those golden eyes, and he couldn’t stop. He felt frozen in that stare. In front of him, Hinata babbled excitedly but he couldn’t focus on it. He blinked slowly and felt his face try to scrunch up, he didn’t know if he wanted to cry or run to him. “-play together!! I’m so freaking excited!!” Hinata words finally reached him. He finally broke away from staring at Tsukishima. Beautiful Kei, who had barely changed, still so tall with those piercing eyes, golden hair you wanted to comb your fingers through. He smiled down at Hinata, visibly shaken but nodding excitedly with his excitement.

Kei didn’t know where to go from here. He couldn’t tear his eyes away. There was Yamaguchi. Only a court away from him, in a volleyball uniform. Before his long legs could start moving toward the door, he was caught by a hand on his shoulder. “Tsukki, going somewhere?” Kuroo asked once Kei tore his eyes away to look at him. “No. I’m not.” Tsukishima managed to grumble, he didn’t want to be caught running away from his feelings again. “Maybe… You should go over there…” his captain offered gesturing over to the small group, his eyes seemed to already know that Tsukishima wouldn’t take his advice.

Kei glanced back at Tadashi and their eyes met once more before the freckled server turned away with an almost sad look in his eyes and walked away with the small Karasuno group. Just as he had thought, nothing would ever go back to normal. Too much time had passed and he couldn’t fix it now. Kuroo frowned when Kei turned on his heel and walked the other way.

He sighed lightly and looked around for Bokuto, once their gazes mingled long enough he sent him a nod. The plan would be set in motion.   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so the next chapter will be the end!! It's been a wild ride!!!  
> Also yes, the boys went to Yamaguchi’s apartment that morning also because they knew he would need that extra boost to get moving.  
> Kags and Tsukki brotp 4ever


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love is like a volleyball to the face. It's painful, unstoppable, unexpected and always leaves some swelling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I was writing the final chapter and about halfway through the end (I promise there is an end) I realized that wow this is long. So I found a good spot to divide it up and turned it into two chapters!! Enjoy my lovelies!! The next chapter should be soon!! (I hope)

Kuroo only had one shot at his plan working correctly, before the match while the teams got warmed up. Not that he thought Bokuto couldn’t aim for Tsukishima well enough during the game, he didn’t want to risk injuring someone else with a rogue volleyball. He would ask Hinata to do it, the kid had great aim when he was in the zone and with the quick spikes he did Kei wouldn’t see it coming. But Hinata didn’t have the guts to do it, the kid was too nice for his own good. Plus, he’d ask questions, whereas Bokuto would do anything for him. A true Bro.

Kuroo glanced at Kei; the unwitting victim in this plan, his eyes darted between the setter that he was lined up with for spiking practice and all the way over to the other side of the court. His shifting glances were exactly what Kuroo feared, with his tallest blocker unable to focus he was at a disadvantage. He followed Tsukishima’s wandering glances over to where Yamaguchi was showing a teammate how to widen his stance to help his receives. 

Besides being the object Kei’s sporadic attention, he looked fairly distracted himself, trying not to get caught stealing glances back at Tsukishima. Every time their gazes lingered too long and either got caught they would look flustered and try to keep their eyes off each other. It was disgustingly cute to say the least. 

Kuroo just wanted to hit them with a volleyball just watching it. He would have never guessed Kei would be such a sap in the presence of someone he liked. He looked over at Bokuto, who was lined up for spiking practice himself.

Bokuto’s eyes flitted between Kei and Akaashi, the latter of the two seemed to have noticed something was up and was glaring in Kuroo’s direction. Obviously, this was all his fault, Akaashi was perceptive as always. Bokuto could see that Kei’s mind was preoccupied, he grinned widely thinking of how dangerous it was to be distracted at a volleyball game. He knew he had to go easy on whatever ball he hit his way, since otherwise it would seriously hurt him, and he didn’t want to hurt Tsukishima that bad…

A ball whizzed past Bokuto’s head pulling him back to reality and out of his thoughts. His eyes snapped to where it came from, Hinata’s pale face caught his attention as the culprit. “I’m so sorry Bokuto!!!” Hinata yelled looking panicked and receiving a glare from his dark haired setter. “No harm, no foul!!” Bokuto laughed waving it off, he should have been paying more attention himself. “I guess his brain is definitely not his biggest muscle” Bokuto heard Tsukishima comment in a stage whisper.

Okay, maybe hurting him wouldn’t be so bad.

“Set it high, Akaashi!!” Bokuto yelled gesturing for above the net getting pumped up. He took his running jump, only barely hearing Kuroo telling him to calm down. Akaashi almost didn’t toss it to him, for a fraction of a second he weighed his options.

First option; toss it up high like Bokuto wanted and let him slam it. The outcome: from the way he was staring and the comment he heard; hit Tsukishima in the face. 

Second option; toss it so that Bokuto misses and let him become frustrated. Outcome: Angry Bokuto and possibly hitting Tsukishima harder.

Third option; Don’t toss and let Bokuto swing at nothing. Outcome: Depressed Bokuto during a practice match.

Weighing those options, he already knew his choice, the easiest one to deal with. Sighing lightly, he tossed the ball into the air high and fast; just like Bokuto liked/wanted. Sorry Tsukishima. 

Once the ball came in contact with the swing from the aces’ hand, it sped off toward it’s respective target with a loud smacking noise. Kei; the target, was none the wiser until his teammate next to him, Yaku, shouted loudly “Tsukishima watch out!“. Tsukishima’s eyes snapped away from where he was staring off into the distance to the ball on a crash course with his face. 

The resounding impact sent him to the ground with a loud crunch of his sports glasses breaking. The gymnasium fell silent in shock, everyone stopping to watch the tall blonde hit the ground. Bokuto realized at the last minute that maybe, just maybe, he had hit that one too hard. 

“Shit! Tsukki are you okay?!” Kuroo yelled rushing over to the downed team member, maybe this plan had a flaw. It wouldn’t work if he was fucking dead. Sure, a volleyball to the face wasn’t a life threatening or uncommon injury but the way Kei was cursing and the blood coming from his nose was enough to create the concern that the impact had broken more than just his glasses. 

The ball in Yamaguchi’s hands fell the second Kei hit the ground, his legs started moving before he could think about it. He joined the gathering group of players trying to push to Kei. He stood up on the tips of his toes trying to get a look, all he could see was the red color staining Kei’s uniform. He choked out Kei’s name and stepped back for a moment trying to think of how he could help.

“Damnit Bokuto, you broke his glasses!” Kuroo yelled at the ace by his side. “I-It’s was an accident! Come on Tsukishima y-you can take a hit, right?” Bokuto tried to laugh even though he was freaking out. Oikawa kneeled in front of Kei trying to get a good look at the injury as Tsukishima recovered from the stunning blow. He blinked twice, trying to focus on the brownish blur in front of him. “Come on glasses, hold your face still so I can see the damage” Oikawa said in his calmest voice, handling the situation with the control of a captain. 

“Yeah, that’s probably broken” Oikawa sighed letting Kei roll his head to the side with a groan, “No shit.” Tsukishima finally groaned his hand coming up to touched the broken lenses of his sports glasses. Shatterproof my ass! 

“We need to take him to the infirmary, they’ll be able to tell if he needs to go to the hospital” Oikawa stood up motioning for Kuroo and Yaku to help him up. Tsukishima‘s legs shook as he stood, but he steadied himself trying to mentally work his way through the shock to his system. His face hurt and he felt like a idiot getting hit in the face like that, after the way he had made fun of Bokuto.

Bokuto.

That owl-brained jackass.

Kuroo called over Kageyama to help Yaku drag Tsukishima off to the infirmary, their manager hurried after the three boys trying to use a towel to keep the already blood stained uniform from getting worse. Kuroo could just barely hear Kei grumbling about dumb owls. Good to see there would be no lasting effects. The plan had been a bust, he should have known to listen to Kenma and not get involved in his friends' relationships. Even if it should have been an easy fix.

He glanced around, looking for Yamaguchi to see if he was going to be effected by what had just happened. The freckled kid was no where to be seen. Just as well, he probably got sick from the sight of all the blood. He didn’t even know if Tadashi wanted to repair the bonds that had held him and Kei together. But damn it had been worth a shot to not see Kei beating himself up over Tadashi. 

“U-Um…. Kuroo…” a small voice whispered behind him, Kuroo turned to see the aforementioned freckled kid standing behind him. Tadashi looked pale and nervous holding something small with both hands. “Oh, don’t worry about him. Maybe he’ll stop making snide comments before someone spikes” Kuroo said patting Yamaguchi on the shoulder trying to comfort him. Getting a closer look at the brunette reminded Kuroo just how nervous the kid was at almost any given time, something he’d almost expected Yamaguchi to grow out of with his height towering over most people. He almost thought the way Tadashi avoided eye contact and tried to shrink his frame reminded him of Kenma. The kid is cute and he can’t blame Tsukki for being enamored with him.  
“I-I…He He needs these…” Yamaguchi managed to stammer out holding out a pair of sports glasses, Tsukki’s spare pair. 

“Oh good! Thank god you knew what pocket he hid them in, he wouldn’t tell me after the last time I stole them” he laughed taking the glasses. Wait. The plan isn’t ruined just yet. Tadashi is right here.

Tadashi nodded and turned to walk away but a was stopped by a hand on his arm and the glasses set back into his hand, “Actually can you go run those over for me? I need to stick around here for the team since my co-captain is gone as well…” Kuroo chuckled. Yamaguchi’s face turn pale when he looked down at the glasses again, “B-But…!” He began to say but the hand on his shoulder silenced him again. “I’m sure Oikawa wouldn’t even notice you gone for a minute, just go give them to Honda if you don’t want to see him” he reasoned putting an arm around Yamaguchi’s shoulders and walking him toward the door to send him along his way. The last wide eyed look Yamaguchi sent him before walking away reminded him of a deer in the headlights.

Oikawa looked around as he pulled him team together, trying to make sure he had everyone. But, Tadashi is missing. “Where is my pinch server??” He demanded looking around and making eye contact with Kuroo across the room. The grin on Kuroo’s lips told him enough. He huffed and looked back at his team. Well it was a interesting experiment while it had lasted. 

Yamaguchi didn’t know what he was doing. Well, he knew that he was walking a pair of glasses to give to Tsukishima, but what the hell was he doing?? Was he going to talk to him, was he going to hand off the glasses to someone else and keep running from his issues? 

Seeing Tsukishima again was making his heart ache, he just wanted to forget anything had happened between them and walk in there as his friend. His best friend that was worried and wanted to make sure he was okay. He wanted to be the Tadashi that wasn’t letting his feeling affect his judgement. The Tadashi where his feeling for Tsukishima wasn’t making talking to him hard. He just wanted to go back in time and change what happened. Just make it like they had never fought like that. Then maybe, this wouldn’t be so hard.  
\--  
“The sun is already setting… Geez it feels like the days are getting shorter!” Yamaguchi observed, stretching his arms above his head with a loud yawn. The usual comfortable silence that filled the space between Yamaguchi and Tsukishima was filled with tension ever since he had received his acceptance letter. Not that Kei even knew. 

“It’s just your imagination, Yamaguchi” Tsukishima mumbled glancing over at the setting sun. But it wasn’t that, the days were feeling shorter. Daylight felt like it was slipping through his fingers and he was running out of time. 

Almost a month ago, Kei had made up his mind to tell Tadashi his true feelings toward him. Not that he was nervous that Yamaguchi would rebuff his feelings, but something was off about him. Something that was putting both of them on edge. Tadashi hadn’t said one word about college in months.

He’d expected to hear all about how they would live together, or at least hang out all the time. But not a word. Although, with all the final club duties being settled into the hands of the future captain that Tadashi had chose, he probably had been too busy to think about stupid things like that. But that didn’t stop Kei from feeling Tadashi slipping away. 

There’s no time like the present. He had to tell him. Had to tell Tadashi he loved him.

“Maybe it is…” Yamaguchi felt his throat run dry just thinking about telling him. He knew where Kei was going, he was going to Tokyo because he got a academic scholarship. But him; he had gotten his acceptance letter from Kansai not too long ago. Much closer to their hometown and had the best teaching program around, it was his first choice. Not that Kei knew that. Not that he’d told him any of this. It probably was his imagination telling him that the days were ending faster and faster.

“Tsukki…” he finally choked out, he could feel his chest grow tight. He could feel Kei’s eyes on him, he was waiting. But he didn’t know if he could do this. How could he? How would Tsukishima react? They hadn’t left each others sides for years. “…. Have you thought about-“ Yamaguchi started to mumble before he was interrupted. 

“Where are you going to college, Yamaguchi?” Tsukishima asked quickly, his eyes pierced Yamaguchi like a knife. He wasn’t going to let Yamaguchi ignore the tension and make light hearted conversation anymore. Whatever had Yamaguchi nervous was the only thing holding back his feelings. He had to know. “… You’re going to Tokyo…” Yamaguchi started again trying to get out of the topic already. “Stop changing the subject. Where are you going?” he almost snapped, he could almost see the sun setting behind Yamaguchi. Time was running out. Or was it already out? How much more time did he have with Tadashi by his side?

“Sendai University…” the words almost choked him and Tsukishima stopped walking to stare at him. Yamaguchi’s eyes tried to hide from his, he felt the knot in his chest ache even worse than ever. Time had run out long ago. 

“Oh… ” Kei started, if he had knew sooner, just a few weeks earlier, even just a few days, maybe he could have done something about it. He turned to look away, the silence between them was killing him. “I don’t get it,” he mumbled feeling his chest tighten at the way Yamaguchi avoided his eyes once he looked back. “Why did you just tell me now?” Tsukishima’s voice started to sound frustrated and strained. And he was. God, he was so angry with himself. 

Yamaguchi felt himself freeze in place, Tsukki was mad. Understandably so. Even with the evening sky darkening over them, Tsukishima’s eyes pierced the dark to him. “I-I… I knew you were going to Tokyo and I just… Sendai has a better teaching program, Tsukki!” He tried to explain, tripping all over his words. What could he say? What kind of idiot wouldn’t tell his best friend where he was going for college? Easy, an idiot who was in love with his best friend and wanted to pretend he wasn’t running away from his feelings. Feelings that would never be returned.

“Since when did you want to be a teacher, anyway?” Kei knew he should have bit his damn tongue instead of saying that. His own cutting words would bury him now, his automatic attitude towards anything that upset him would destroy the friendship he had (cherished) for so long.

“Wha-What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’ve been talking about becoming a teacher for years!” Yamaguchi felt his face heat up at his words, how many of his words had gone in one ear and out the other?! Was he ever really listening?! He always believed in his heart that Kei was listening to him all these years, but was he wrong?

Tsukishima bit back more cutting words and conceded with a short response, “Right… You’re right…” he almost whispered. Not that it hadn’t reached Tadashi’s ears anyway. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He breathed. Yamaguchi swallowed hard at the quietness of his words, “I-It’s never came up…” he mumbled looking away the way he always did. Kei had to stop the hurt, sarcastic laugh that came from his chest.

“How did that not come up? You talk about everything! Why were you keeping this from me?” Kei asked angrily. “Because… Because I knew you’d be mad! You got a scholarship to go to Tokyo! So of course it wouldn’t matter to you what school it was! But Sendai has the program I want to be in! I’m sorry if, for the first time since we met; my plans don’t involve you!!” Yamaguchi wished he could have swallowed those words before they could escape. 

Tsukishima then knew. Without a doubt. His time ran out a long time ago. 

“Fine. Enjoy Sendai.” Tsukishima’s eyes showed the betrayal that he felt, he turned away and let his long legs take him away. “…Tsukki?” Yamaguchi whispered watching him walk away. His face burned and his eyes watered. 

His heavy feet carried him the rest of the way home that night in the deep silence. Well, it would have been silence if he wasn’t crying.  
\--  
Yamaguchi looked down at the sports glasses in his hands and looked them over for a second as he walked toward the infirmary. The turned them over in his hands careful to avoid the glass. He remembered the first time he saw Tsukishima wearing them, how serious and confident he looked. He missed seeing that gleam in his eyes.

He looked up at the door to the infirmary. After the day he was having, he didn’t even think he had it in him to be nervous. But God, his knees shook and his stomach burned regardless.

Before he could open the door to the infirmary, the door swung open and the manager of the Tokyo team rushed out with a exaggerated sigh shutting the door behind her. “I can’t believe he is such an ass sometimes!! He is too hot to be such a dick ugh!!” The girl, Honda if he remembered correctly, moaned scratching her head in frustration.

“Sadly, you are not wrong” Yamaguchi chuckled quietly trying to diffuse the fuming red-head. Honda glanced his way and blushed brightly realized her words had been heard. She giggled lightly, her annoyance sated at the warm smile on his face, “I’m sure I’m not the first one to say that, right?” she sighed happily and looked down to the glasses in his hand. “Oh thank god! He’s so mad that he can’t see! Would you go give those to him for me?” She asked quickly. Seeing the way Tadashi suddenly looked nervous she patted him on the shoulder, “You’re old friends, right? You know he’s effectively harmless, as long as you don’t mind your feeling getting trampled….” She grumbled looking away.

Yamaguchi knit his eyebrows together with nervousness, he didn’t know if he was ready to be alone with Tsukishima but he couldn’t refuse the upset girl. Smiling warmly he nodded and Honda let out a happy sigh, “Thank you!! I’m gonna go tell the coach his condition real quick and I’ll be back!” She scampered off quickly.

Yamaguchi looked at the door swallowing hard, he had to do this now. Opening the door, he looked in to see Tsukishima sitting on the side of the bed holding a bag of ice to his face, his long legs kicked lightly showing how annoyed he was. “Honda, go get Bokuto so I can break his nose…” he grumbled, his voice was nasally and irritated. Oh god, his nose is probably broken. Yamaguchi stifled a laugh covering his mouth, biting his lower lip he tried not to think about how cute Kei looked on the way too short examination table, he was glad he wasn’t laying down or else he would look even more ridiculous with his legs probably dangling off the side.

“Okay, but only if it’s actually broken” he answered trying to steady his shaky voice. He didn’t miss the way Tsukishima almost dropped his bag of ice when his face snapped to look at Yamaguchi. “An eye for an eye, right?” he smiled warmly and shrugged a little taking another step toward the stunned blonde. He thought for a moment that maybe Tsukishima didn’t want to see him, or talk at all, but the silent way his eyes tried to focus on his face and his mouth tried to open to croak out words kept him there.

“I-It’s Yama-“ he started to tell him realizing that his poor eye sight probably was making it hard for him to tell who it was. “I know it’s you, Yamaguchi” Kei cut off his words, the way he said his name drowned out all the intrusive thoughts that made him worry. Why did he even worry? Of course, Tsukki would know his voice and… basic fuzzy shape.

The silence that fell between them wasn’t as awkward as he had expected. The way their eyes met, even though Kei’s were unfocused, made it all feel okay, without anyone around to try and force the issue they just stared at each other the way they used to. “So… So what are you… You shouldn’t have left the game just to come check on me…” Tsukishima mumbled scratching the back of his neck breaking the silence. 

“Oh! H – Here!” Yamaguchi quickly stepped closer to put the sports glasses in his hand, “It seems your other pair actually got broken by the impact… I-I already knew where your back up pair was…” Yamaguchi rubbed his arm looking away as Kei slid the older pair of goggles onto his head and he finally focused on the figure in front of him. The way his sharp eyes found Tadashi’s made Tadashi’s heart beat faster. 'Get it together, Tadashi!' Yamaguchi yelled at himself trying not to let his eyes show how happy he was to see him. “Thank you, Yamaguchi” the way Tsukishima’s voice strained and he swallowed hard before saying his name made the whole thing worse. So much worse. 

Before he could open his mouth to say something cool (it was going to be cool! Trust me!) H)Kei’s nose decided to start bleeding again. “Ugh!” He groaned leaning back and using the already blood stained rag to clean his face trying to ignore the way Yamaguchi started tittering with laughter. “Shut up, Yamaguchi” he grumbled, voice once again donning a nasally tone to it, making him sound pathetic by any standards. “Sorry Tsukki!” Yamaguchi chirped before he could stop himself. He almost covered his mouth, but that would have made it too obvious.

Kei leaned back forward to look at him, he was shocked to hear that voice call him Tsukki again. The silence fell between them once more, Yamaguchi noticed that the red stained rag looked a little beyond bloody and stepped over to sink to get him a new rag. 

As Yamaguchi started to get a new rag wet, Tsukishima watched him silently thinking about all the words he should (could) ((would?)) say. Sorry? No it’s too much for one word. But maybe, one word is all it would take, Yamaguchi had always been good at reading into his words. Finding all the words he meant to say without trying.

“Here, that one looks a litt-“

“I’m sorry.”

The way Yamaguchi’s eyes widened at his words and his whole body froze almost made Kei wonder if those were the wrong words. Yamaguchi almost let the rag fall right out of his hand before he caught it and laughed nervously continuing over to Kei to take the old one. “N-No, Yamaguchi don’t touch it it’s…” he tried to keep the bloodied rag from his ex-bestfriend’s grasp. 

“I don’t forgive you.” Yamaguchi began grabbing the rag before it could get out of his reach and replacing it quickly before the nose could make a worse mess of Kei’s uniform. He looked down at the puzzled look in Tsukishima’s eyes. “Not before you forgive me…” he put his hand up as Kei’s mouth opened to say something. “But all of that, later. Is it… is it broken?” He carefully asked trying to get a curious look at the nose in question. 

“No… But I think I still deserve to break Bokuto’s nose” he grumbled, he silently enjoyed the chuckle that came from Tadashi. “How did this even happen?” Yamaguchi asked trying not to laugh at him too hard. “I was distracted…” Kei sounded angry at himself, it was cuter than it should have been. “By what?” Yamaguchi laughed lightly trying to get a better look at his nose, when Kei didn’t answer Yamaguchi looked up to his eyes. The way he stared into his eyes said everything.

You.

Yamaguchi’s breath caught in his throat, their eyes stayed locked like that for what felt like forever. Not that either ever wanted to stop staring.

“There you are Tada-chan!!!” a loud voice behind them called, Yamaguchi snapped away from Kei’s eyes to turn and look at Oikawa. “The match already started! I put in Akaashi so I could come find you!” He walked over ignoring the way Tsukishima glared at him for interrupting (and for calling Yamaguchi Tada-chan).

“S-Sorry Oikawa-san” Yamaguchi said quickly letting the older boy grab his elbow to gently pull him along. He turned a little to look back at Tsukishima, those eyes caught his again with a thousand words exchanged in just a second. “Ah, hold on” he said stopping and forcing Oikawa to stop and wait. Oikawa huffed and crossed his arms stopping to wait. 

“There’s a get-together at my place tonight, I hope I see you there” he said quickly, smiling at Tsukishima gently before letting Oikawa pull him away complaining loudly; “I need my pinch server, Tada-chan!”. 

Kei watched them leave and leaned back with a heavy sigh, maybe it was the blood loss or vertigo from getting hit that hard with a volleyball but he could have sworn Tadashi had new freckles decorating his red cheeks. Not that he was staring. Who was he kidding? Of course he was. He closed his eyes and all he could see was that warm smile he missed so much. “How can I say no, now?” He almost laughed shaking his head gently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gucci is smoother than me all the time though omfg  
> Also, I hurt Tsukki too much omg I'm so sorry my little angry french fry  
> I'd call Honda an OC but??? She's just kinda thrown in there...  
> Do you know how hard it is to write their fight?? Like, so fucking hard... It probably sucks I'm so sorry!!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukki meets Tsukki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know how much of a struggle this was?

The party was far more crowded than Tsukishima had expected. What had started as a small get-together with his old teammates had quickly devolved into a huge party with both teams in attendance. Yamaguchi’s small apartment was ripping at the seams trying to accommodate the loud college kids packed inside. And despite Kei’s best attempts (he was trying really hard!) to find Yamaguchi in the crowds, it was extremely hard and he hadn’t seen him at all. He flitted from group to group, trying to find the brunette so he could finally talk to him.

He felt a hand pat his shoulder roughly and turned to see Daichi smiling warmly. “Hey Tsukishima, didn’t see you at the game!” Daichi said eying the bruises starting to show on Tsukishima’s eyes and nose. “Hey, yeah, Bokuto tried to break my nose with a volleyball. Amazingly, it’s just really badly bruised…” he grumbled rubbing the skin next to his nose gingerly. Daichi chuckled, “Volleyball is a dangerous sport, especially with Bokuto around” he jerked a thumb back toward the ace, who stood farther away from Tsukishima to avoid the revenge he would seek for the injury.

Kei snorted shaking his head in derision, “I should have seen it coming… There were too many idiots around for me to get distracted…” he sighed glancing around the room quickly to try and catch a glance of Yamaguchi. He’d never had this much trouble finding him before. Though not tall as him, Yamaguchi was still taller than most people, their age or otherwise. 

Daichi smirked a bit at the way Kei’s eyes darted around the room. “Still distracted?” He asked, Kei had a one track mind sometimes. “I… Yeah, Have you seen-“

“Yamaguchi, right?” Daichi all-knowing smile lit up across his face. “How the hell did you-“ 

“You know, I know”

“Right, of course” If Sugawara knows, Daichi does. And Sugawara knows all, even from an entirely different school. “You should check his room, you never know” Daichi shrugged and pat him on the shoulder again, “It’s good to see you, Tsukishima. But you look busy, I’ll talk to you later” he walked past Tsukishima. Of course, Yamaguchi hates loud, crowded event like this, he was probably flitting in and out of his room. 

Tsukishima slid through the crowds to the small packed hall with his room and the bathroom. He opened the door and slid right in with a huff. He hated crowds. It was nice to be in the small room, despite the fact that the owner still wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He glanced around the room, it was a lot less cluttered than his bedroom back home. It didn’t have his personality in it. It definitely didn’t have the stars on the ceiling that they put up when the were young.

Tsukishima sat on the bed looking up at the ceiling, he wondered if Yamaguchi missed them, he did now that he knew Yamaguchi wasn’t sleeping under them. 

Under the bed he heard a quiet shuffling, he almost jumped at the noise but looked around to see what happened. Nothing looked like it had moved, he moved to check under the bed when something shuffled against the door and the knob turned. 

“How you holding up, Tsukki?” Yamaguchi opened the door, taking a drink from the beer in his hand, which he’d been stress-drinking all evening. Despite being brave enough to invite Tsukishima to the party, he had started getting worried when he hadn’t seen Tsukishima anywhere. This was only his second beer. 

He turned to look and saw the Tsukki he wasn’t expecting sitting on the bed. Yamaguchi choked on his words (and beer) and grabbed the door to catch himself. “Tsu – Tsukishima…” he gasped in shock. He was met with a just as surprised look from the blonde. “H-Hey” he waved holding the drink close to him, Tsukishima stood fiddling with the hem of his shirt. “It’s crazy out there, I was trying to get away…” Kei shrugged rubbing the back of his neck. “Right, he must be going nuts. He hates parties and crowds…” Yamaguchi thought to himself watching Kei shift on the heel of his feet uncomfortably.

“Yeah I don’t blame you, if Nishinoya drinks anymore he’s gonna get alcohol poisoning” Yamaguchi leaned off the door walking over and setting his drink down. “If he drinks anymore, he’s going to be more alcohol than human” Kei sneered, the high chuckle that came from Tadashi sounded like music in his ears. An old familiar melody that he had missed.

“Oh come on! He’s grown like… Two inches! Th-That makes it better” he dissolved into laughter with Kei smirking and trying not to laugh with him. “Oh and here I thought Hinata had shrunk” he scoffed. Yamaguchi sat on the bed and patted the bed next to him smiling at Kei warmly. “Did you need anything to drink? It’s hard hosting parties” Tadashi whined as Kei sat next him, their knees almost touched. 

“Oh no… I don’t drink” Tsukishima shook his head looking up at Yamaguchi’s grinning cheeks. He had gained more freckles. “Oh yeah, I remember…” Yamaguchi said his tone conveying more than his words, eying Tsukishima for a reaction. Kei gave a breathy laugh and glanced at Yamaguchi, “You remember? How much do you remember?” He raised his eyebrow cocking his head toward him. “Enough…” Yamaguchi said before averting his gaze and losing his confidence, Kei’s golden eyes were too intense for him.

It was amazing how easy it was to just slip back into talking again, despite the thick tension that hung over them like a cloud. “How’s your nose? Looks like you’re starting to bruise…” Tadashi said hissing with sympathy when Kei rubbed his cheek absent-mindedly. “Better. Seems Bokuto is avoiding me in fear of retailiation, it’s been great.” Tsukishima snorted out a chuckle, the quiet was easily the best part of the ordeal. 

As their laughter faded slowly Yamaguchi felt the knot in his throat growing again, “Did… Did I really distract you that much?” He asked quietly swallowing hard as Kei gaze met his again. “Well… I wasn’t expecting to see you…” Tsukishima shrugged glancing at Yamaguchi’s hands as they fidgeted nervously. “Yeah that was… a last minute decision… I wanted to focus on school but, Oikawa refused to take no for an answer” Yamaguchi left out the reason he knew that Oikawa wanted a pinch server. It was even harder to believe that it had worked, Tsukishima had to sit out the whole match, the only reason the match had been so close was because Kuroo took his place.

“How is school?”, Yamaguchi didn’t miss the way Kei swallowed hard to even mention school to him. He couldn’t blame him, they were supposed to talk about what happened, but he just wanted to forget about the whole fight and go back to pretending Tsukishima didn’t (unintentionally he hoped) break his heart.  
“Oh! Great!” He laughed nervously looking away and biting his lip, the subject even felt sore on his tongue. “The Theory of Learning class is fascinating! And I’m getting a lot of practice! Like when I tutor Noya and Tanaka, I pretty much have to teach them. .. how to learn” he sighed laughing lightly and nodding his head. 

“Wow. High school failed them.”

“Probably too focus on sports” Yamaguchi tsked trying to hold back laughter, while Kei covered his mouth and let his shoulders shake in quiet chuckling.

As their laughter died down once more they found themselves just staring at each other silently. It was strange and tense but it felt right. “…Yamaguchi..” Tsukishima started to say before the door opened and let in the loud commotion of the party to interrupt him.

Nishinoya leaned his head out the door, “How’s Tsukki holding up?!” He yelled inside immediately freezing when the two looked at him in shock. “Oh! Wrong Tsukki! Sorry!” He shouted quickly shutting the door before Yamaguchi could jump up at throw his empty drink at him and hurry over to lock the door. He let out an exasperated sigh, the mood had been completely ruined and they would never talk it out. He might as well just hide in his room forever, since once Nishinoya tells everyone who he saw him with, he would never live it down. He could hear it now. 

Seriously, Yama-chan?! Giving it up at a party? 

Tsukishima? Again??

Told you!!

Tanaka you owe me twenty bucks.

“…wrong Tsukki?” Tsukishima muttered, confused by his choice of words. Before he could think on it again he felt pair of eyes on him. He spun around to see, in the window above Yamaguchi’s bed, a tan tabby cat glaring him down. 

“…a cat?” 

Yamaguchi exited his mental crisis when he heard those words. He spun around just in time to watch the large cat jump from the window towards the blonde. Shit. He almost forgot about his attack cat.

Tsukki landed with a quiet thump in front of Tsukishima, his eyes warily watching the tall boy. “…Where did you get such a scrawny cat? You don’t even like cat-“ apparently Kei had chosen the wrong words and the cat lunged to attack, his tails twitching back and forth. “Tsukki, no!!” Yamaguchi practically screeched running over to get the cat off Tsukishima.

Tsukishima covered his face and jumped back almost scrambling off the bed. He wasn’t entirely a fan of cats. Actually, he hated most pets. Yamaguchi grabbed up the tabby to hold him away from Tsukishima, “I-I’m so sorry! He’s really aggressive with anyone but me!” Yamaguchi tried to explain while Tsukki glared Kei down again, tail twitching in Yamaguchi’s arms. “Why do you have an aggressive cat, and why is it named Tsukki?” Kei asked raising an eyebrow at the way Yamaguchi’s face lit up red all the way to the tips of his ears. 

“About a month ago, he was wandering around outside Shimada’s store when Nishinoya and Tanaka tried to catch him, he hated them and attached himself to me so… they named him Tsukki… and it sort of stuck” Yamaguchi tried to trail off his words as his blush spread down his neck. He never expected to tell the cat’s namesake that story. Tsukki rubbed his face against Yamaguchi’s, trying to scent him and mark Yamaguchi as his owner and territory, taking a second one to glare at the blonde. Tsukishima huffed and rolled his eyes, “That sound typical… predictable, really”.

Yamaguchi set Tsukki down to scamper back under the bed, “I really didn’t like cats before I got him, but he’s just so affectionate… I can’t hate him” he shrugged sitting back down with Tsukishima. “Well that doesn’t surprise me… You fed that cat the night after nationals, you got really drunk and fed that cat” Kei recalled. He had a very good memory, especially of that night. “That makes sense… Wait what??” Yamaguchi almost got whiplash spinning on Kei’s words. 

“Yeah, you fed that cat when you were really drunk… You said you remember that night, right?” 

“Apparently not that…”

“What do you remember?” 

Yamaguchi bit his lower lip looking away from him, “I remember a very one-sided game of beer pong” he laughed nervously, “and… I remember telling you that I love you…” he finally said. He couldn’t look at Kei now, that was definitely his limit on honestly for the moment. He could hear the hard way Kei swallowed at his words, imagining the way Kei’s Adam’s apple bobbed. 

“You were so damn drunk… Honestly, I didn’t know if you were serious…” Tsukishima choked out moving his legs away from where Tsukki was reaching out from under the bed to attack his ankles. “Really? I always sort of thought I was obvious about it…” Yamaguchi chuckled brushing his hair behind his ear and finally glancing at Kei.

He’d never seen him so red, the blush on his face reached up to his ears and down to his collarbone (well that was as far as he could see). But, his usually distant gold eyes were trained on him with a mix of deep emotions. “I always thought I was too…” Kei grumbled covering his mouth his blush only getting darker. The way he looked, was embarrassingly cute.

“Tsukki, nothing about you is obvious” Yamaguchi chuckled, and he wasn’t wrong. Everything Tsukishima said had a double meaning. But the look in his eyes told Tadashi everything. His usually cold golden eyes were dark with open emotion, the light of the moon shining in from the window above Yamaguchi’s bed shone back in Kei’s eyes. He was being honest and straightforward. 

“The reason I was so mad about you going to a different college was… because I wanted to tell you how I felt properly… But I figured it was too late when you decided to go to a different school. I should have said something then but… I was an idiot and a coward and-“ he started to spew out before Tadashi’s hands came up to cup his cheeks and force him to stop talking. 

Hearing those words was all Yamaguchi had wanted for the last few months. But now, seeing his best friend talking about himself like this, it was breaking his heart.

“I can think of a lot of words to describe you. But coward or idiot isn’t one of them” he said staring into Kei’s eyes seriously before leaning forward, lost in Kei’s wide eyes. Tadashi closed his eyes, waiting to feel Kei pull away. He almost hoped Kei would, this was all going too well. But instead, he could feel Kei lean toward him to let their lips touch.

Yamaguchi had barely felt the way their lips felt pressed together when they were shocked out of their kiss by a chuckle from the doorway. Turning quickly, they saw Kuroo, Oikawa and Sugawara grinning at them like they had caught them doing something much worse. Somehow they had broke in, though door locks sounded like something Kuroo could get through. “You guys needs anything? Condoms? Lube?” Oikawa asked brightly avoiding the shoe that was thrown at his face. “Be gentle, Tsukki, he’s got practice in the morning” Kuroo said teasingly backing out quickly at the death glare that was thrown at him. “God bless you kids” Sugawara giggled and shut the door before Yamaguchi could get up to slam the door in their faces. 

“I hate them so much...” Yamaguchi locked his door again and felt like he was going to pass out from the blood rushing to his face. He looked back at Kei who looked how he felt Like, if they got interrupted one more time, he was going to kill.

Yamaguchi secured the door again and walked back to where Kei had stood up. “Maybe we should just go join the party so they stop interrupting us…” he laughed scratching the back of his neck at the way Kei huffed at his statement. 

“After…” 

“After what?”

Kei moved close to him and placed a hand on the small of his back and on the back of his neck pulling him into a kiss. This kiss lacked the innocent press of the first kiss, Tadashi thought he might melt at the warm hum against his lips. Tadashi reached up and wrapped his arms around Kei’s neck loosely. Kei’s slightly chapped lips felt rough but so good against his. Like something long, long overdue. He could feel the way Kei’s thumb slid over his cheek, counting the freckles.

Kei broke the kiss for a second to breathe before Yamaguchi barreled in for another, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to stop kissing him.

Yamaguchi took the chance to cup his cheeks and start peppering his face with light kisses, “I’m so sorry Tsukki… I should have told you…” he whispered between kisses. 

“You should have been…” Kissing his jaw. 

“… the first to know…” Kissing his cheeks up to his forehead. 

“…I’m so, so sorry Tsukki…”. 

Kei felt like he was going to short circuit from the way Yamaguchi was kissing him, he pulled Yamaguchi’s lips back to his before he could continue his apologies.

Kei took a step back pulling Yamaguchi to sit on the bed with him. The second Tadashi’s knees hit the bed, he decided he did not want make out vertically and crawled onto Tsukishima’s lap to push him down by his shoulders. As Kei’s head hit the bed, Yamaguchi’s hand slipped off his shoulder and his forehead came down onto Kei’s bruised nose.

He jumped back with a shriek sitting up as Kei let out a loud groan and covered his nose. “Oh shit! Oh crap! I’m so sorry, Tsukki!!” He yelped trying to help but not sure what to do. “Are you… oh Fuck Tsukki did I break it??” He asked as Tsukishima sat up covering his nose. “Ah… Fuck, no… It’s not… broken…” he groaned his voice going nasally again. “I-I’ll get you a bag of ice” he moved to get off Kei’s lap but a solid hand on his lower back held him in place.

“No just… Wait…” Kei wrapped his arms around Tadashi and leaned his head on his shoulder with a groan. “Give me… a minute…” he mumbled leaning his forehead on Yamaguchi and closing his eyes. Yamaguchi smelled like daisies and brown sugar, he never wanted to let go of him. Yamaguchi rested his arms on Kei’s back, rubbing gentle circles into the nape of his neck. The feeling was so relaxing, it felt like the way Yamaguchi used to comfort him when he would get migraines. His dexterous fingers felt like a comfort zone to him. Even though his inflamed nose ached with pain, but he felt it began to subside with the feeling of Tadashi’s fingers against his skin. The warm touch of his fingers felt like home.

Kei sighed and relaxed melting against his chest, “I missed you…” he breathed.

He could hear the way Yamaguchi’s breath hitched at the words, sure it was embarrassing to say, but he wanted to say it. He needed to. He felt the heavy way Yamaguchi breathed and could barely hear a whimper. Tadashi’s breath caught and shuddered, he could hear the wet sob in Yamaguchi’s lungs. “You…. Are you crying?” He finally asked pulling away to look at Yamaguchi. And he was. 

“N-No…” Yamaguchi breathed covering his eyes and trying not to let Kei see. “I-I… just… Something i-is in my e-eye…” he mumbled looking up at Tsukishima trying to rub away the tears pooling. Hearing those words from Kei, the words he wanted to hear for so long, it was too much to handle. “Yes you are… Hey… Stop that…” Tsukishima put his hands on Yamaguchi’s shoulders trying to jostle him out of his tearful moment. Tadashi huffed and laid his head on Kei’s shoulder as he got his tears to stop before it got out of hand. “I-I… I missed you too Tsukki…” he whispered. He couldn’t see how flustered Kei was, but he could feel the way his skin heated up under his touch. 

Yamaguchi chuckled lightly and sat back up, “I’m sorry, Tsukki… I didn’t mean to get emotional like that, we should probably get back to the party before they try to break in again” he glanced up at the sour expression on Kei’s face. Just to enunciate his point, the door knob jingle loudly and they could hear Nishinoya complain on the other side, “Stop making out and come hang out with your friends!!”. In a hushed voice beside him, but still loud enough to be heard over the party, Asahi tried to quiet his drunk boyfriend, “Noya, j – just leave them alone…”. Yamaguchi smiled a bit and looked back at Tsukishima, “Come on” he stood and offered his hand. Kei stared at him pointedly but took his hand and let himself get pulled to the door.

The embarrassing cheering from the crowded apartment would cause a stern noise complaint in the morning.  
\--  
The party started to wind down somewhere around 2 a.m. Small groups slowly made their way out with fond goodbyes, carrying the passed out or too drunk members with them. Slowly the apartment became quiet, the only members left we’re the ex-Karasuno teammates, sitting around the couches chatting excitedly. 

Asahi had fallen asleep on a (still awake and still drunk?) Nishinoya who was talking to Kiyoko and Yachi about the dog Yachi wanted to adopt. Kageyama had Hinata placed in his lap to ensure the energetic shorty couldn’t start running down the streets, where he was talking to Daichi about the practice match excitedly. Sugawara leaned on Daichi tiredly talking to Ennoshita and Tsukishima. Yamaguchi, seated next Kei, talked to Narita and Tanaka while Kinoshita managed to sleep sitting up against Narita. 

“Okay, but seriously, after all the shit that cat put you through you kept it?! It’s not even that cute, and I like cats!” Tanaka complained, almost jostling Kinoshita awake. He gestured at the blond cat that was glaring at the small group on the kitchen counter. “Tsukki is cute. In a… ‘I hate you’ sort of way…” Narita shrugged glancing over at the aforementioned cat, who had disappeared. “See? I’m not the only one who finds Tsukki cute” Tadashi said as the cat came up to rub against his calves. “No, you’re the only one to finds Tsukishima cute” Nishinoya corrected him from the other couch, clearly only half listening to their conversation. “Wrong Tsukki!” Yamaguchi called back picking up the cat, Tsukishima scooted further away from the cat sending it a small glare.

“Awww! He’s even cuter in person!” Yachi gushed, her attention turned onto the tabby who was rubbing his cheek on Yamaguchi’s in a attempt to mark him with his scent. “Yeah but don’t get too close… That kitty got claws” Tanaka warned, Tsukki eyed him for a moment before glaring at him and sinking his claws into Yamaguchi’s collarbone. “Oh! He’s sizing you up Ryuu!” Nishinoya cackled as Yamaguchi hissed in pain and pulled the cat off his chest. He sternly glared at the cat, “Bad Tsukki!”.

Tsukki blinked slowly, looking about the room and not making eye contact with him, flicking his tail in annoyance. “Yamaguchi, it’s a cat, you can’t just reprimand it. He’s not going to listen” Sugawara reminded him with a chuckle. “Oh, he knows when I’m talking to him… Don’t you?” Tadashi looked around trying to make eye contact with the cat, who avoided his eyes boredly. “Now you listen here, Tsukki.” Yamaguchi sternly snapped before the cat turned to look him in the eyes, much to the small groups’ amazement. The even glare from the feline was only returned by his freckled owner.

The staring contest that ensued ended when Yamaguchi sighed and dropped the cat and Tsukki scurried off, the victor. 

“Alright, we should all get back to our hotels” Daichi murmured sleepily trying to stretch and wake up for the walk. The group groaned in exhaustion, Asahi opening his eyes a little and yawning quietly. “Daichi is right” Ennoshita nudged Kinoshita awake once more, “Ugh, you’re so responsible it’s annoying…” Tanaka whined standing up to stretch. 

The group started to get moving realizing that in only a few hours they had to be on the bus back home. “It’s a captain thing” Ennoshita teased helping Nishinoya pull Asahi up to his feet. “Oh? Anything to add then Yamaguchi?” Hinata piped up, Kageyama had a hand on his sleeve to keep him in one place since he was too sleepy to hold onto the short boy without falling asleep.

“Yeah, get out of my apartment so my cat will go to bed” Tadashi said as seriously as he could manage. “Cold! We’re on our way! Don’t forget we have practice at 8 am!” Tanaka called back with Asahi following with Nishinoya doing most of the pulling. “Come on Asahi! We haven’t gotten any alone time!” He complained loudly, his implications woke Asahi immediately. Ennoshita followed them with Narita and Kinoshita, “…. You can stay with us Tanaka” Kinoshita quickly offered just to help the sudden sour look on his face.

Sugawara hugged Yamaguchi quickly, giving him a reassuring smile. “I was glad to see you out there today, despite all that-…” he waved in the air trying to find a way to not state the issue, “blugh!” He settled on shaking his head. Yamaguchi tried not to laugh at his flustered movement. 

Kiyoko and Yachi followed them out after Yachi hugged each boy for what felt like five minutes each (four and a half, Kei counted). Hinata, Kageyama and Tsukishima stood around the door chatting for a second, it was strange to look between the original first year players and think back to the way they first met. It was nice to think of them all as friends now. “Where is the hotel anyway?” Kei asked yawning lightly. Hinata looked confused for a moment, he looked up at Kageyama who yawned loudly obviously as clueless as he was. Tsukishima snorted in annoyance, “What is that look for?” He asked looking between the two. “I thought Kuroo told you, you didn’t want to room with us so he said you’d find your own lodging” Hinata finally said. 

No doubt, such a measure was a back-up plan to the one that had almost failed. Kuroo was probably proud of that one. Yamaguchi hid a laugh behind his hand at the grimace of Kei’s face. “Are you kidding? Where am I supposed to stay?” He rolled his eyes and looked at Yamaguchi, “Guess it’s the streets for me” he said sarcastically. Yamaguchi nodded solemnly giving him a sad look before they both started chuckling. Kageyama watched them sleepily before yawning once more, “Nice to have you back” he mumbled looking between the two, he then looking down at Hinata, cocking his head toward the door. 

“Who did you mean?” Kei asked before they walked out, “Either” Kageyama responded. “The bus leaves at 9! Be up!” Hinata yelled back closing the door behind him. 

Kei tsked folding his arms over his chest, “Who knew Kageyama would be the one to turn out thoughtful and deep…” Yamaguchi mused as he locked the door behind them and turned back to Tsukishima. The quiet felt nice to stand in, the room was a mess that he decided to clean later, he had too much to catch up on. The way they stared at each other in the silence reminded Tadashi that finally he was alone with Tsukishima. No one to interrupt them. 

The tall blonde eyed him across the room before sauntering over to him, “I’d say something about being alone finally, but I feel like someone would interrupt us again…” Tsukishima slid an arm around his lower back pulling him close. “No one has a spare key except my mom” he assured Kei, his hand slid up the arm around his waist feeling the warm slightly muscular skin under his shirt. “Don’t you dare say that…” Tsukishima whispered leaning in close and kissing his pulse point on his neck. “If she shows up, I give up…” he grumbled his lips traveling down Yamaguchi’s neck. 

If Yamaguchi was tired before, he definitely wasn’t anymore. “If she shows up without warning I’m taking away her key” he mumbled, “Now, stop talking about my mom and kiss me”. He had lost his breath at some point but from the heat in Kei’s eyes, he had a feeling he wasn’t going to get it back all night. 

Yamaguchi was really glad he had bought a new mattress when Kei’s body pressed his into it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say how much I love every single one of you?! Seriously. I love you all. I'm hoping to get into writing again and keep writing these two for a while!! I feel like this ending sucked but, I completely chickened out of writing smut... I wanted to but it just seemed?? Wrong?? Maybe I'll post the scene I wrote someday... But for now, happy endings!!
> 
> Again! THANK YOU!!!!
> 
> I hope this was worth reading! !


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